Gamers have been able to ollie, grind, flip or pop their virtual skaters to mega-points for more than thirty years at this point. A lot has changed since Atari's 720 Degrees, released in 1986 - one of the earliest extreme sports titles - with numerous skateboarding games showing up in best seller lists over the years.

The two franchises featured in this article, Tony Hawk and Skate, have been genre-defining. The information about the latest editions below refer to versions developed for use on next generation consoles PlayStation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360 and Wii. Both franchises offer titles on handheld console systems, computers and/or mobile phones/devices.

Most people think of the Tony Hawk franchise when they think of this genre. With sixteen titles released since 1999, when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater hit the scene to huge acclaim and sales. Tony Hawk: Shred, the latest in the series, has an arcade look and gameplay style. After Activision announced that there would be no 2011 edition in February 2011, there have been rumors that Shred may be the last game in the franchise.

Tony Hawk: Shred has been developed for younger gamers. Older gamers may still be enticed by some of the game's features, though. It comes with the cool skateboard-deck motion-controller (first seen alongside the last TH title: Ride), has social gaming features and a 'Go Big' trick system.

As with previous incarnations, the tricks are insane, awesome and tons of fun. You can also choose to have your skater jump on a snowboard and shred down an alpine peak or carve across a layer of fresh powder. Shred was released in October 2010 and is available on all console platforms. Endorsed by professional skater Tony Hawk (obviously), Neversoft develops the franchise's titles and Activision publishes them.

Electronic Arts' innovative Skate series (Skate, Skate 2 and Skate 3 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and Skate It for the Wii) has impressed critics, veteran- and novice gamers alike with its innovative Flick-It control system, feature-richness and awesome environments. Unlike the button-combinations (some would say button-mashing) traditionally used to pull off tricks, the first Skate introduced a control scheme made up of pulling, pushing and flicking the two analog sticks in certain patterns. Flick-It gives a much more tactile, precise feel to pulling off tricks, and the control scheme has only improved with each sequel.

Skate 3, released May 2010 for the Xbox and PlayStation 3, is set in an all-new fictional city called Port Caverton. In contrast to Skate 2's San Vanelona, which featured stark and gritty visuals and learnt an 'underground' feel to the game's skaters and skating, Port Caverton is openly skater-friendly and its cityscapes are much more colourful. There are new easy and hardcore difficulty levels, and a Skate School which will keep your basic Flick-It skills in nick. Online game modes have been nicely expanded to include three new online team play modes: 1-Up, Domination and Own The Lot. This adds a particularly fun dimension to an already cool game.

EA Black Box's Skate franchise may be comparatively new (the first Skate debuted in September 2007), but it is immensely popular. The first Skate arrived at about the same time as Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, yet has amassed nearly double the amount of sales. Shred had a bit of a dismal opening week in comparison to Skate 3's too. Gaming fans have many predictions - the continuing dominance of Skate, the return to glory for TH in 2012 - but only time will tell which (if either) of these skateboarding games franchises will come out tops.