The late ‘90s and early 2000s were the era of extreme sports. The X Games were established as part of mainstream culture. Tony Hawk landed the elusive 900. And of course, extreme sports video games shot to the top of the charts both commercially and critically. Seven years into the new millennium, a new king of virtual skateboarding had been established. The pick-up-and-play style of the Tony Hawk series had run its course and been replaced with EA Black Box’s Skate series, a more grounded approach to landing kickflip and grinding rails.
The studio would refine the core of that original game across two more entries culminating in one of the greatest video game sequels ever. 2010’s Skate 3 may not look all that different from what came before it. But the timelessness of the series' core tenants has made it a bonafide classic players are still obsessed with today. Perhaps the biggest part of Skate 3’s legacy after all these years later isn’t how fantastic this entry is, but the mind-boggling fact that this series highpoint hasn’t had a sequel in over 15 years.
