Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

"You know a game is good when you have all 20 of the songs memorized in your head, and your still on the first level"

First impact:

When I slammed down my fifty bucks and prepared to play the latest addition in the Tony Hawk series, my first idea was that Activision and Neversoft would use their tried-and-true formula of the previous games to deliver an excellent ''expansion'' to the other 2. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. As it starts out, you watch another excellent movie sequence of the ''birdman'' and the 13 other pros pulling off their best tricks. The next thing you'll notice is that there has been a new option added to the menu, the TUTORIAL, something that the other Tony Hawk games really could have used. Led by the voice of Tony Hawk him self, this short setup will give you the ins and outs of the entire game. After that, I decided to quickly skim through the one-player mode to see what it was all about.
I was no doubt amazed.

Graphics: 10/10

Although I would say that graphics are the least important part of a game, the ps2's capabilities once again amaze me
with beautiful textures, expansive levels, and incredible shadow effects. Everything seems to be taken care of graphics-wise, with lighting effects appropriate to each level. For example, in the suburbia level, the sun is just beginning to set, so all the ramps facing west have the sunlight shining on them. Every ramp and rail looks slick,
steep, and beautiful. The people populating the levels are wearing the appropriate clothing for the area their in, and everything about them is realistic.Even the areas that you cant explore(blocked off by a fence,crazy hillbilly, etc.)
are rich in detail.

Gameplay 10/10: Ahh the gameplay. This can make or break any would be good game. Thankfully, all the gameplay mechanics from the original has been kept intact, and they've even added a few things to keep the gameplay fresh and new. As in the original, the career mode has you skateboard around levels, pulling off random goals and racking up trick combos.For those of you who have been living in a cave and haven't played the original,heres how the gameplay goes. You skateboard around levels pulling off tricks and wreaking havoc. The game plays like any normal skateboarding session, you unrealistically trick off of ramps and grind rails, gaining points along the way. Going up vert ramps and holding the grab or manual button allows you to gain points. turning while doing trick will also allow you to gain even moooore points. Grind tricks are especially fun because you can combo off of anything. Then there are the combos that the THPS series has always been famous for. It's basically ''Trick points-X-number of tricks pulled off= a lot of points total. Now on to the more advanced stuff. The revert manages to make the entire skateboarding genre seem anew. Hitting the revert button at the end of a trick will allow you to manual into another trick, continuing that trick and allowing you to score a huge multiplier all through the level. Its hard to describe it, but just playing it will allow you to see what I'm talking about.

Sound 10/10: The music is more based on aggression than on the more relaxed, set back tone of the original. The whopping 20 songs are full of variety and manage to give a few songs for every taste or age group. The sound affects are awesome, too. Riding over pavement makes a more gravelly sound than skidding on ice. Rails have never sounded more screechy, either. People from the streets will call out to you, also, asking you ''show them what you've got''. That, in itself is mildly entertaining and really realistic.

Atmosphere 10/10: This game has attitude, and a lot of it. The levels are realistically designed, and the people in the areas dont just stand by and compliment you. They go on with their daily lives and even criticize if you fall in front of them. Doing tricks in front of them can make them even complement you. The levels are highly interactive, too. On one level, an objective is ''bury the bully''. You have to do something to cause snow to fall on the bully.
Objectives like these keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.

Longevity: The game is really short, but every time you beat it with a character, you unlock new characters, hidden levels, and a variety of cheats to unlock. I can go on and on about the level editor, create a skater, Internet play,
etc., but it would take me 10 more paragraphs.

Fun factor: Didn't you just read what I said?

Buy or rent: what do you think?

BUY THIS GAME!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/01, Updated 11/12/01