With the excitement building ahead of the impending release of Riders Republic, it is certainly worth looking back on all the previous video games centered around extreme sports, and more specifically the best ones that have led to this inevitable excitement.
Tony Hawk games could potentially dominate any top 10 list on the subject so will be disregarded on this occasion. Other than skateboarding, the main ones to be considered as extreme sports are snowboarding, cycling, surfing, and parkour.
10 Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer Is Similar To Skating Games While Also Being Its Own Entity
The name Treyarch has become synonymous with the Call of Duty franchise over the years but they did in fact also develop Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x and Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer back in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer turned out to be more than just a "pro" copy and paste game, just with surfing instead of skateboarding. It was a genuinely fun game to play at the time, with a surprisingly useful tutorial at the wave pool, and an extensive map with multiple levels spanning the entire world.
9 Mirror's Edge Is The Parkour Game We Didn't Know We Needed
Mirror's Edge technically counts as an extreme sports game, as its main focus is on parkour, but it feels somewhat separated from the rest of the genre. This is mainly because it has combat and fighting elements, and it has its own complex storyline, away from just doing tricks and running courses for scores and good times.
Upon release, it wasn't as popular as it arguably should have been, as the concept of free-running from a first-person perspective felt almost revolutionary with the thrills and spills of parkour, and that was without considering the rest that the game had to offer.
8 Steep Is A Hugely Immersive Experience For All Extreme Sport Lovers
Steep is the game that many people will be looking to compare to Riders Republic, as it was the first extreme sports game to truly explore a realistic open world experience, allowing players to move around freely— whether they wanted to ski, snowboard, wing-suit or para-glide, alone or with friends.
The open world nature of it could sometimes become too much, as often a player wants a certain level of guidance to give more purpose to a video game experience. Regardless, its visuals and immersion were second to none, and really paved the way for future extreme sports games to follow suit.
7 Skate 3 Isn't The Best Of The Series But Is Still Bundles Of Fun
While Skate 3 was ultimately unable to reach the heights of its predecessor Skate 2, it did introduce and focus on a concept that would make it a good and successful game in its own right: Making a skating team. This could be with AI skaters or it could be taken online with friends, customizing team-members to coordinate gear or just to make everyone stand out.
Taking part in team events added a whole new side to the online and career modes, even if the latter didn't necessarily carry that much weight overall.
6 Jet Grind Radio & Jet Set Radio Future Are Unique & Enjoyable Twists On The Concept Of Skating
Jet Set Radio— originally called Jet Grind Radio for its initial North American release— and its sequel Jet Set Radio Future both had the same premise: To control a member of a gang of graffiti-tagging inline skaters, competing against rivals to tag graffiti-points and earn points in doing so.
A concept that may not sound too appealing at first glance, Jet Set Radio is engaging enough to be considered one of the most unique and fun extreme sports games of the early 2000s. It put its own spin on the successful skateboarding games by having a different type of skating, while still having the player earn points by performing tricks.
5 SSX 3 Establishes SSX As The Tony Hawk Of Snowboarding Game Franchises
As far as snowboarding video games go, SSX 3 and 1080 Snowboarding well and truly eclipse other competitors in terms of games that focus solely on snowboarding. SSX 3 was the first game of the series to add an element of free-roam, with it being possible for players to ride from the top of the mountain to the bottom if they wanted to.
The Playstation 2 version of the game had online multiplayer for those who had EA accounts which added a whole new layer to this exciting game, on top of the events and challenges. SSX 3 was even remastered for Xbox One, which polished an already shining diamond.
4 Skate Is A Stepping Stone For The Future Success Of The Franchise But Also Great In Itself
The original Skate game is what really got the ball rolling for the franchise. It was arguably more suited to those players who would like to have a more leisurely and fun play around with tricks, but it certainly paved the way for better competitive aspects in future iterations.
It had online but it was basic and didn't function incredibly well, but once again it was something to build on. In some cases, the original of a game franchise is considered to be the best, whether that be because of nostalgia value or its originality, but with Skate, it felt like it was the beginning of a journey through the franchise, a potential competitor for the Tony Hawk games that wasn't quite there yet.
3 1080 Snowboarding Is Still One Of The Best Snowboarding Games Despite Its Dated Graphics
Introduced to the Nintendo 64 in 1998, 1080 Snowboarding is a valued member of the snowboarding and extreme sports video game alumni. Although the concept was basic enough, it was a well-put-together game, from its engaging opening credits to the various game modes— consisting of a training mode, two trick modes, and three race modes.
1080 offered difficulty levels going up to expert to make playing against the AI that extra bit challenging and frustrating. Although there were less than 30 tricks available to learn and execute, it never got too stale for what it was.
2 Trials Evolution Elevates The Trials Series Even Further After The Success Of Trials HD
The Trials series of games really took off when they were introduced to consoles with Trials HD coming to Xbox 360 in 2009, as Trials and Trials 2 that had come beforehand were pretty unheard of. The success of Trials HD brought Trials Evolution in 2012, Trials Fusion in 2014 and Trials Rising in 2019, with each of them being introduced to new consoles and devices every time, consistently expanding the franchise's horizons.
While all of them are great in their own ways, Trials Evolution is arguably the best of the series. While Trials HD allowed players to see a ghost of their Xbox friends to compare times, Trials Evolution actively introduced multiplayer, allowing players to race against their friends.
1 Skate 2 Is The Closest Competition The Tony Hawk Games Have Ever Had
Picking up where the original Skate game left off, Skate 2 cemented the franchise as a true rival for the Tony Hawk games. Not only did it bring refined graphics, even more tricks and more characters, but it even introduced new modes like Hall of Meat. Despite not necessarily being typical for a skateboarding game, Hall of Meat turned into a hilarious and fun new mode, where players had to rag-doll themselves around and get as many injuries as possible.
Released two years after the original Skate game and one year after the spin-off Skate It, Skate 2 felt like it had ironed out the creases that the previous games may have had and stabilized a franchise that would go on to release more.