I've been loving the extreme sports renaissance of this console generation.

[skotafactor]

I've been a huge fan of extreme sports games ever since playing the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on my neighbor's N64 in 1999. Since then, I've played just about every action sports game that's been released, the good, bad, and ugly (except motorsports like motorbikes and jetskis). After the success of the Pro Skater series, there was an explosion of copycats and a few hidden gems on the PS1 (I really liked Street Sk8er 2, Thrasher, and Grind Session.) Coolboarders was another popular franchise that moved the needle forward, but I'd argue that as a whole, that franchise really doesn't hold up well today.

 

When the PS2 launched, the oversaturation of the market only got worse. As Activation noticed the success of their skateboarding darling, they launching the O2 brand where they translated the THPS engine over to every other sport imaginable. At the same time, SSX and Jet Set Radio created an absolute splash in the genre. Everyone from THQ to Konami wanted a piece of the pie, and the market was quickly flooded with unplayable trash like the Simpsons Skateboarding and Disney Sports Skateboarding. The other notable publisher at this time was Acclaim. I never was a huge fan of the Dave Mirra games (especially BMX XXX, ugh), but I think they sold pretty well and Aggressive Inline was absolutely fantastic. 

 

As we moved to the PS3, all of Birdman's competition quickly dropped out of the running, really leaving the Hawk games as the only option on the PS3 - until skate. skate. was a gamechanger. For the first time since Thrasher on the PS1, a developer tried to tackle a realistic approach to the genre, and they created some of the most addictive, satisfying gameplay. I partially blame the skate series for the impending death of the genre. Tony Hawk had gotten stale and in order to compete, they needed to pivot. And poorly pivot they did. Tony Hawk Ride and Shred put the series on life support. After skate 3 and the reboot of SSX, the entire genre went pretty dormant.

 

From 2014 to 2020 we only got a  handful of games really: the excellent OlliOlli series, the insulting THPS5, Steep and Infinite Air. This felt like an absolute trickle compared to what I was used to since the complete boom in the early 00s. This leads us to today- there has been a recent resurgence starting around 2020 and I have been LOVING it. Over the past few years, we've gotten two new sim games: Skater XL which was pretty meh on console in my opinion, and Session which I adore. We've gotten Rollerdrome, which feels so fresh, unique and addictive. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, which was a perfect and necessary send-off to the genre. Riders Republic, which took everything Ubisoft learned from Steep and dialed it up to 11. Skatebird, which I think is pretty bad, but charming at least. It's just nice to have some additional games to choose from. OlliOlli World, which I haven't played yet, but looks like everything I liked from the first two games and then some. Plus a few more worth shouting out like Shredders and Lonely Mountains Downhill. 

 

And today Bomb Rush Cyberfunk released, which looks like such a fun spiritual successor to the JSR series. With the free-to-play skate game around the corner, personally I'm hoping this recent trend sticks around for a bit. It's been so refreshing to be able to trophy hunt games in the genre recently since the library of extreme sports games with trophies was pretty small for the longest time.

[Slava]

Extreme sports is one subgenre that practiaclly passed me by. The closest thing to a skateboard game I played was the mini-game in Spyro 3  (it was one of my favourite ones, especially the second skateboard area). I've had some interest in SSX games, and still want to play Jet Set Radio, but yeah, never got around to playing. I may have played 10 minutes of BMX XXX when I was trying out different PS2 games that my cousin gave me, but I honestly don't remember.

 

Regardless, it's nice to see them come back. I like that you even included games like Skatebird and Lonely Mountains Downhill, which I actually have heard a lot good things about.

 

With Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and maybe some other games, do you think this resurgence has something to do with a new generation of developers who grew up playing Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk games getting to do their own stuff? I know something like this happened to 2D sidescrollers in early 2010's, followed by a big number of Metroidvanias, then quite a few indie 3D platformers started to come out in late 2010's. 

 

Nice trophy collection, BTW.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Slava

[skotafactor]

35 minutes ago, Slava said:

Extreme sports is one subgenre that practiaclly passed me by. The closest thing to a skateboard game I played was the mini-game in Spyro 3  (it was one of my favourite ones, especially the second skateboard area). I've had some interest in SSX games, and still want to play Jet Set Radio, but yeah, never got around to playing. I may have played 10 minutes of BMX XXX when I was trying out different PS2 games that my cousin gave me, but I honestly don't remember.

 

Regardless, it's nice to see them come back. I like that you even included games like Skatebird and Lonely Mountains Downhill, which I actually have heard a lot good things about.

 

With Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and maybe some other games, do you think this resurgence has something to do with a new generation of developers who grew up playing Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk games getting to do their own stuff? I know something like this happened to 2D sidescrollers in early 2010's, followed by a big number of Metroidvanias, then quite a few indie 3D platformers started to come out in late 2010's. 

 

Nice trophy collection, BTW.

Thanks! I much preferred Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox to the original, but Bomb Rush looks like a nice mix of both. The last SSX game (SSX 2012) was really quite fun to plat! It was controversal among series fans because they changed a lot up and made it more accessible to newcomers. My only gripe with it though was the art direction going in the gritty direction as opposed to the bright, bombastic look of previous games.

 

I think that's a totally fair point about these games being made by people that grew up with extreme sports titles. The devs of Bomb Rush have not been subtle about their inspiration, and I know that games like Skater XL and Session were born out frustation of the discontinuation of the Skate series. 

 

If you're looking for one to try out, you might give the OlliOlli series a go! It's essentially a side-scrolling platformer with a skateboard, and can be pretty punishing if you have a high pain tolerance. 

[Don_Chipotle]

I think skating culture by the end of the 90s and early 00s is will be the most memorable period of time for the talent, the brands, the publicity, the whole mainstream and not so mainstream part of the subculture, i think its amazing how with the right boom of "surfing the web", it just made it bigger.

 

That being said, the games have evolved really well, there is a wide range of difficulty range, and kinds of games, like retro olli olli or the remakes of TH

[robiemuze]

I really want a new Skate game to come out already.

[poker_1987]

No fear downhill mounting biking on the ps1 is underrated 

[skotafactor]

6 hours ago, poker_1987 said:

No fear downhill mounting biking on the ps1 is underrated 

I found it way too difficult to win a race. I preferred Downhill Domination on the Ps2, which I think were the same devs if I’m remembering correctly. 

[poker_1987]

5 hours ago, skotafactor said:

I found it way too difficult to win a race. I preferred Downhill Domination on the Ps2, which I think were the same devs if I’m remembering correctly. 

Never played it. Liked the ps1 fame though.

 

If I ever see domination I'll pick it up

[plafix68]

Great write-up! I didn't think anything of it when these types of games sort of faded from the market. But I didn't realize how much I actually missed these games until playing THPS 1+2, Riders Republic, and the 2012 SSX (I enjoyed it too and agree with your take) recently. I have OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome on my to play list. I find myself gravitating back to these games not just because they do take me back to the games I grew up with, but also because they're great games that you can play for as little or as long as you want. It's easy enough to start up a session or two if you're short on time but it can easily turn into hours by trying to one up a previous high score and complete all the various objectives.

[skotafactor]

8 hours ago, plafix68 said:I find myself gravitating back to these games not just because they do take me back to the games I grew up with, but also because they're great games that you can play for as little or as long as you want. It's easy enough to start up a session or two if you're short on time but it can easily turn into hours by trying to one up a previous high score and complete all the various objectives.

Absolutely! I’m in a stage of life right now where I’m finding it hard to find the time to sit and play a large narrative-focused open world game for several hours, and the pick-up and play nature of a lot of these games has been super appealing. I’ve been working on the rest of the OlliOlli series lately, and the “just one more try” nature of them can really get you sucked in, lol.