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It may seem silly now, but there was a time when Tony Hawk titles regularly sold in the region of 5 millions copies a year. Activision's annual skate series was so successful in fact that it even inspired EA to open up a second front in its war on Call of Duty HQ.

The company's Skate title, released in 2007 provided a more realistic take on the four-wheeled phenomenon, and signaled the beginning of the end for this once-mighty Tony Hawk franchise. With 13 titles already under its belt, and a failed experiment in motion control halting any plans of revival, the Tony Hawk's series quietly slipped from view as of November, 2010. But it's not dead yet.

A team of dedicated modders, fans and skateboard enthusiasts are getting together to reassemble the series' greatest hits. The so-called THUG Pro mod aims to anthologize elements of every game in the series up to and including 2005's American Wasteland. Utilizing Tony Hawk's Underground 2 as its basis, Pro promises to implement a raft of new features, including a level editor, original story mode and even vehicle racing sections.

With the transfer and development of content only halfway complete, the current mod (available here) is limited to THUG 1 & 2 elements, alongside a small number of tweaks to online matchmaking, screen resolution, character customization and control format options. The bump up to 1080p sounds particularly interesting, considering older textures tend to suffer as a result of this process. This could either mean a slightly stretched and jagged visual experience, or that the Pro team intends to redo a number of the game's textures.

Given the ever-doubling size of modern hard drives, the idea of anthology mods like this one are at last becoming feasible. Take an older set of games, possibly built on the same engine and incorporate their elements into a single gigantic, more-gamer-friendly playground. Imagine Vice City & Vice City Stories, played together, but with a GTA 5-style character-switching (not to mention time-twisting) mechanic built in. How about a mash up of Ocarina of Time and followup Majora's Mask, in which Link's instruments plays a game-changing tune?

Did EA's Skate series change the game or is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater still top dog? Are skating games ready for an 8th-gen comeback or has 'the Birdman' had his day? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to keep up with all the latest gaming news, right here on Game Rant.

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The Tony Hawk Pro mod is now available for PC. Additional content is still under development. Players will require a copy of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (THUG 2) to play.

Follow Sam on Twitter @GamingGoo.

Source: Kotaku