Criterion 's Lost Skate Or Die Sequel

Usually when you biff on your board, it's not a good scene. Broken ankles, road rash, bloody shins... But Burnout and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit developer Criterion turned its first rough spot with EA into gold.

"Criterion started talking to EA in 2002," explained Criterion creative director Alex Ward to UK magazine GamesTM, "and they asked if we'd be interested in doing a remake of the old C64 and NES game, Skate or Die. These guys wanted to make a skateboarding game, so we did it. This is the first game Criterion made with EA, and these guys were on what was then the Airblade team."

Criag Sullivan, another creative director at Criterion, says the game was going to allow you to get off of your board and explore, but despite this freedom, Sullivan says EA didn't like the direction the game was going in. "We were told, 'You can't just make a Tony Hawk game – it's got to be like GTA,' and that was the first time we were like, 'Really? It's got to be open world?' Well, what does that mean? Nobody really knew." For the record, Tony Hawk didn't let you get off the board until 2003's Tony Hawk's Underground.

Despite this setback, Criterion's Burnout series took off and the company itself was bought by EA in 2004 – not to mention that EA's skating dreams would eventually come true with the Skate series (developed by EA's Black Box studio). Funnily enough, you couldn't get off your board in that franchise until Skate 2...