The best skateboard game ever made?

You're encouraged to find your own lines
Because Tony Hawk's games are all about earning millions of points in as few runs as possible, recent games have felt less like believable worlds and more like grid-lined environments designed for you to jump-grind-jump-grind your way through with as little planning as possible.

Skate, on the other hand, gives you a playground and lets you decide what to do with it. And, as you can see in the video below, there's tons of experimenting to do. Can you clear that gap and grind that handrail? Will using that sloped curb help? Let's find out.

The location we've skated through had a marvellous blend of obvious and not-so-obvious lines, in a plausible environment that never made you feel like you were being forced or funnelled along a particular route. It was a skate park, mind, but it's a better skate park than we've ever seen elsewhere, organic and open to individual interpretation.

Will the city-scapes offer the same, brilliant experience? With a team of dedicated skateboarding developerson board, you can bet on it.

Skate, on the other hand, gives you a playground and lets you decide what to do with it. And, as you can see in the video below, there's tons of experimenting to do. Can you clear that gap and grind that handrail? Will using that sloped curb help? Let's find out.

The location we've skated through had a marvellous blend of obvious and not-so-obvious lines, in a plausible environment that never made you feel like you were being forced or funnelled along a particular route. It was a skate park, mind, but it's a better skate park than we've ever seen elsewhere, organic and open to individual interpretation.

Will the city-scapes offer the same, brilliant experience? With a team of dedicated skateboarding developerson board, you can bet on it.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.