Depending on who you ask, the series peaked with Pro Skater 2, Pro Skater 3, or Underground, with the franchise generally agreed to have then circled the drain until Neversoft stopped making Tony Hawk games after the commercial failure of Proving Ground, and promptly began working on Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, the series ran on a gruelling (for both the developers at Neversoft and the players) annualised schedule, a move which, unsurprisingly, led to stagnation and franchise fatigue. The tight, fast-paced gameplay, superb level design, mountains of hidden unlockables and Easter Eggs, addictive multiplayer (Notably, Pro Skater 3 was the first PS2 game to feature online functionality, before the official system modem was even released) and impeccable taste in licensed music led to absolutely enormous financial and critical success - with Pro Skater 2 in particular being the second highest rated game of all time on Metacritic, tied with Grand Theft Auto IV and Soulcalibur and just behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

While the Pro Skater games are examples of No Plot? No Problem!, the post- Underground games would generally come with an actual plot, often of surprisingly good quality. Beginning with Pro Skater 4, the levels were expanded greatly, and the two-minute timer was eliminated (except for particular challenges). Many of the skate parks in the series are modeled after real locations, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Scoring enough points and completing enough objectives (such as grinding a particular rail or jumping over a specified gap) will unlock a new course for the player to skate on. The first three games in the series gave the player a two-minute time limit to score as many points as possible by stringing together grabs, flip tricks, and grinds. The Tony Hawk's series is a line of skateboarding video games published by Activision, and one of the first to feature the likenesses of professional skaters such as the Hawkman himself.

Tony hawk skateboarding