1. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
Perfection. That’s the best way to describe Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. After the first two entries set the foundation and built out the formula, THPS3 hit on PS2 and was the pinnacle of classic Tony Hawk action. Not only did it take everything from the first two games and bring it to a new, more powerful console, but it debuted one of the franchise’s most important gameplay mechanics: Reverts.
Reverts changed everything. They let you link big combos together in a way never seen before. You could, for example, hit up a vert ramp and do a big special trick, revert out of it, manual and then pop onto a rail and rack up a huge amount of points. Later games in the series continued to add more and more. Some of it worked, a lot didn’t, but this is where everything perfectly clicked into place. Pro Skater 3 isn’t just the best Tony Hawk game ever made, it’s also arguably the best skateboarding game ever made.
