In the summer of 2001, I was eight years old.Shrekwas the biggest movie in the world, no woman would ever be as famous nor as beautiful as Britney Spears, a tragedy that would shape the face of Western politics for the next quarter of a century was imminent, and I got myself my very first skateboard. It felt like a simpler time. Maybe it was, or maybe everyone just feels that way when they’re eight years old. This year is making me nostalgic for that time.
Not for impending geopolitical upheaval as part of a sequence of public attacks, but for my first skateboard. Less for the time I spent riding it - try as I might, I could never really get the hang of it - but for the reason I had asked for one in the first place. I grew up lovingTony Hawk’s Pro Skater, skater attire, wristbands with way too many spikes on them, and vaguely comedic pop punk music. Basically, imagine the coolest anyone has ever been, throw some ice cubes on top, and that’s me at eight years old. That cultural moment may be making a return.
In The ‘90s, Skating Was A Cultural Force
Though THPS was not the first game to feature riding on a skateboard - that would be 720 back in 1986 - it felt like a watershed moment for the collision of skating and video games. Not only did it lead to a ton of sequels that came out at a steady cadence, butMatt Hoffmanand Kelly Slater got their own games from the same company focusing on BMX and surfing, whileThe Simpsons churned a bad THPS rip-off out too. There was also the horrifically named MTV Sports: Skateboarding Featuring Andy Macdonald, whose gameplay was not much better than the title deserved.
Skating games had taken over, and with that, skaters took over.Jackass became a mega-hitoff the back of the counterculture waves skateboarding brought to popular culture. The biggest music stars in the world were pseudo-punks with frosted tips, many of whom featured in THPS itself. We all believed Heaven was a Halfpipe. The X Games was a thing you walked around not only knowing about, butcaringabout.
Culture goes in cycles, and with the fall of the MTV generation came the fall of skating as a cultural institution. But in the two decades since, it has returned. If not quite to the forefront the way it once was at the turn of the century, then at least as an active player in Western youth and sport culture. The rise of normcore, the legitimisation of skating through the Olympics, and the fact that cycles pull you back up just as fast as they spin you down means skating is part of the conversation again.
This Summer Is The Summer Of Skating Games
We only need to look at video games for that, and the upcoming summer of skating helps.Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is finally following up 2020’s 1+2 remasterwith3+4, although theexclusion of Careerdoes put a damper on things. Amongst the rivals to the Tony Hawk’s series over the years, the only one that had any stamina at all wasSkate, and that’s also coming back to match wits with its old sparring partner,although the free-to-play live-service modeldoes also put a damper on things.
But it’s not just the two established series coming back. Skate culture has always needed a youthful energy to explode, not just legends tricking out. Look at the Women’s Park event at the Olympics, where the three medallists had a combined age of 45 - more than a decade younger than the Birdman himself at 56. In the virtual realm, the position of newcomer will be filled bySkate Story.
Recently announced for PS5 having previously just been scheduled for PC, and that should help bring it to a broader audience, although… wait, we’re good with this one? Sweet. It likely won’t reach the dominance Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater had in the late ’90s, but skating is definitely on an upward crest, and seeing three skating games coming out all at once underlines its return to the world stage. With that, 2025 is looking as totally rad as 2001 was.
