Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

"Continuing the series in great style!"

THPS3 combines the elements of the first two games with 9 brand new levels, a new trick for linking combos, a new skater (Bam Margera) to the lineup, much better graphics and a whole ton of secrets. It may boast a few changes since the PSX days, but all very fulfilling. Fans of the series will hold this game in very high regard.

Graphics: 9/10
Arguably the most improved quality of the series are the graphics in this game. Everything is smooth, crisp and clear - a big step up from the blockiness and jaggedness of the PSX games. The game's lighting also appears to have improved significantly from THPS and THPS2. There are, however, a few glitches here and there where your skater will go through solid objects or get stuck, forcing a restart, but these don't occur all that often. You may also notice a framerate drop in the Tokyo level, but nothing drastic enough to hurt the quality of the game. Overall the graphics are nice and detailed with very few flaws.

Sound: 8/10
The game's soundtrack consists mainly of rock and hip-hop, and while opinions of the songs will vary, they aren't too bad. Some of the featured bands include: Motorhead, Alien Ant Farm, CKY, Redman, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guttermouth and more. The sound effects are great. Voice acting for the characters in each level are not only superb but quite humorous. Whenever you do something near a pedestrian, they react in different ways and during competitions, the spectators will either cheer for good combos or laugh when you bail. Aside from that, nothing else really stands out as far as the sound goes. Though most of the songs are decent, I do feel a better soundtrack could have been used.

Controls: 10/10
A lot of people who are used to the PSX controls for the previous THPS games may need some time to adapt to the new setup for the GameCube, but things aren't all that different. In fact, I find the controls in this game to be more fitting than those of the PSX/PS2. The A button would be the equivalent of the PS2's X for ollies, the Y to the PS2's triangle for grinds, the B to the PS2's square for flips and the X to the PS2's circle for grabs. The shoulder buttons are used for both spins, switches and reverts. Speaking of which, THPS3 features a new trick - the revert. A revert is performed after coming off of a pipe and lets you link lip tricks with others for insane combos. The built-in rumble feature in the controller also makes for an enjoyable playing experience.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is better than ever with 9 brand new (and fairly large) levels to play through as well as three hidden levels from the original THPS which have been revamped. Each level contains a total of 9 goals - four of which are unique to each level. The other five include: collecting S-K-A-T-E, finding the secret tape and getting high/pro/SICK scores. A new addition to the series is having multiple locations for S-K-A-T-E letters so that different characters will have to find S-K-A-T-E in different locations.

Also new are stat points which you can collect to increase your character's skating statistics. Each level in the game also has a new deck for each skater to find and swap at the main skateshop. Also included are a more intricate skatepark creator and create-a-skater option, not to mention the two-player mode with different types of play. If anything, a few more levels or goals would have been nice, but what's there is more than ample - just a bit repetitive.

Replayability: 8/10
It may not sound like there's a whole lot to do after beating the game, but there is. Afterwards, you can complete the game multiple more times to unlock secrets, create different skaters, make your own skateparks to play in, hook up another controller and play fun 2-player games or just create new challenges for yourself. The only real problem is that after the first few times of beating the game, it gets rather tiring and repetitive. You've got to give credit to Neversoft for trying, though. They've created multiple locations not only for the S-K-A-T-E letters but the stat points and decks too, so you can look forward to something different each time you start a new career. Even with the repetition, the game has enough to keep you occupied for a few weeks at the least.

Rent or Buy?
This one is really left up to you. If it's your first THPS game, a rental may be in place just to see what you're in for. Loved the first two games? Go out and buy this one now. You may be able to beat the game a few times on a rental, but to unlock all of the secrets and take advantage of the game's full potential, you're going to have to plunk down $50 and buy it. Rest assured, it's well worth that much.

Overall: 9/10
Sure, it may not have online play like its PS2 counterpart, but nevertheless, this is one topnotch title. If you're a fan of skateboarding or just liked the first two games in the series, I strongly recommend giving this one a try. With 9 brand new levels and a new revert trick to pull off amazing combos, there's no reason to not at least try this game out (unless, of course, you hated the first two).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/01, Updated 12/28/01