Top Skater

Top Skater is an arcade skateboarding sports video game released by Sega in 1997, and built on the Sega Model 2 hardware. It was one of the first arcade games to feature a skateboard controller interface. The game was directed by Kenji Kanno.

In Top Skater, players stand on a skateboard-like platform which swung side-to-side or tilted, manipulating the actions of the avatars in the game. The game has ramps, rails and other skating objects from which the player can do tricks to gain points.[1] The player has a limited amount of time in which to perform tricks, but can extend this time by collecting time bonus rings or by performing certain tricks.

Kenji Kanno went on to create the Crazy Taxi series, which has similar character art design and music. Top Skater also served as a basic foundation for later skateboarding games including Activision's Tony Hawk's series. Top Skater had a sequel called Air Trix, released by Sega for arcades in 2001.