Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Xbox)

This latest Tony Hawk adventure puts a whole new spin on the skater genre. It is called PROJECT 8 because it's the eighth game in the Tony Hawk series; in this game, Tony Hawk is on a quest to find the eight best skaters. You start off as a skater with a low ranking, so you need to do as many cool tricks as possible to move up in the rankings. You must achieve certain goals, but they aren't linear. You also have in-game skating showdowns against a variety of pro skaters, each of whom will dare you to do different mind-blowing stunts

Project 8 includes all of the features gamers love about previous Tony Hawk titles, with some cool upgrades and additions. Bam Margera makes an appearance, which will please fans of the Jackass show (they will probably also like the way skaters can bail and get hurt); Jason Lee of My Name Is Earl also appears in a prominent role. Of course you can still show off your skater skills and do lots of fancy tricks. But now you also get to roam around in one big city and skate in all kinds of interesting areas along the way.

In this installment of the Tony Hawk series, the responses are quicker, and you have better control over your characters and the tricks they can perform. There is online support for up to eight players. While hardcore skaters will love this game the most, it has enough action and cool features to keep most other gamers hooked for quite a while, as well. This is the best skater game yet, with cool tricks and boredom-avoiding challenges -- but some of the skaters' bad and dangerous behavior should be addressed with kids who play it.