"Neversoft has done it again!"

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater took skateboarding to the next level in the world of video games, and then the sequel came along and improved on the first in almost every way possible.I thought it couldn't get any better, but I couldn't have been more wrong.........

Gameplay: The Tony Hawk series has always kept three concepts in mind, (1)People like pulling off tricks,(2)They like competition with each other, and lastly (3)It has to keep with the spirit of skateboarding,namely going very big and spectacular. Neversoft's goal for this PS2 debut of the Tony series was to try to make it as huge a leap from number 2 to this one as it was 1 to number 2.Tony 2 introduced the ultimate combo maker with the new addition of the manual, which allowed you to string tricks together for more points, but it was pretty much only useful for street tricks. This time around Neversoft added a trick called the revert. When you are about to land a vert trick hit R2, if timed right your skater will do a revert,ollie into a manual and your on your way to a huge combo!
The revert is very handy since you can make combos you could only dream of before in Tony 2.Speaking of combos,Tony Hawk 3 has way more moves then the previous installments,which all accounts to a better game experience then ever before.Some of the big additions tn the trick department is more flatland tricks and transitions from flatland to flatland, grind to grind, and lip trick to lip trick without ollies. For instance, you can do an Anti-Casper, transition it to a casper, to a casper flip, to a handstand, to a handflip, etc. Likewise, you can go from a 50-50 grind to a nosegrind to a nosebluntslide to a crooked grind without ollieing. The career mode has been updated quite a bit,especially in the weird department. Some of the more obscure goals involve freeing a mans tongue frozen to a pole,getting the thin man his ''key'',and trashing a museum.
The staple goals of the series such as,getting secret tapes,collecting S-K-A-T-E letters,and getting high scores are still present. The one really big change to career mode however is ditching the money collecting system present in Tony 2 and returning to the completing goals ethic of Tony Hawk 1. You can still get new decks and update stats however by collecting them in the levels.Every level has 5 hidden stat points and one deck per skater. One really nice touch is Neversoft programmed multiple placement setups for items such as skate letters and stat points,so you can't just memorize where they are for future careers.
There are tons of goodies to unlock via career mode such as lots of videos,extra characters,cheat modes,and extra levels.
So thankfully 1-player career mode has plenty of replay built-in. Plus there is always single session,and free skate to hone your skating skills for career. Where Tony 3 really heats up though is in Multi-Player,trust me it will keep you playing forever. H-O-R-S-E,Trick-Attack, Grafitti, and Free-Skate return with the addition of Slap,and King of the Hill.In Slap when two skaters go by each other whoever is faster slaps the other player,and whoever has the most slaps once time runs out wins.King of the Hill has a crown pick it up and you are king.Better keep doing tricks since if you stop your skater gets slower and slower,making it easier for the other skater to catch up to you and steal the crown. The first to hold the crown for whatever time you alott for both of you wins. 2-player multi-player is really nice,but I'm sure it will be much better online where up to 4-Players can compete at one time against each other. I haven't played online yet,but i've heard the frame-rate stays pretty rock solid at all times.You can play online without the soon to be released PS2 modem,since Tony 3 is compatible with USB Ethernet adapters.
The create a park and create a skater modes are here like they were in the second game, with some improvements. You have more options on how your skater will look like from his clothes, to the color of his skin, tattoos, hair, and all that. The clothes range from normal shirts to goofy hats like a cowboy hat,and viking hat,plus soem whacked shoes like clown shoes among things. It's funny to play around with, and you can also use these things on the real life skaters. You can take Eric Koston for example, and give him a hat, some shades,and make him run around shirtless if you wish. The create a park mode has also been expanded greatly,not only are you giving more stuff to build with, but also the size of the parks and the amount of items you can put in have been increased alot, plus the whole process has been smoothed out since Tony 2,so its much easiers to lay down those parks.

Graphics:Obviously this version looks alot better then the PSX,we are talking about PS2 afterall. Each skater consists of several thousand polys,and they look just like the real thing, and even your created skaters have the same attention to detail. The levels themselves are extremely detailed,with nice texturing and lighting effects,also there is no fogging or draw-in. Thankfully the jagged edges PS2 is ''famous'' for has been greatly reduced,so naturally it aids blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. The game hovers right around 60-frames per second at all times,which is especially impressive with all the traffic and pedestrians roaming around.I would go as far to say as Tony 3 is currently one of the smoothest running and most beautiful looking PS2 games at this time.
Oh and did I mention the blood your skater spills stays until the end of the run,helping aid the grimace factor when you bail. The only real drawback to the graphics is when your skater is right in front of your view it can result in cutting,seeing right through your skaters clothes.

Sound:Sound effect are excellent,plus there are ambient sounds that draw you into the particular level you are in, not to mention the bone crunching wipout sound effects are pretty gruesome at times. The music tracks for the game are rap and rock,which fit the skating theme well.

Control: Super smooth just as always.If you have ever played any of the prior Tony Hawk's you will have no problem in picking it up,and if you are a newbie check out the Tutorial where you learn the tricks of the trade (narrated by Tony himself).

Replay Value: High!

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is the best in the series. It brings everything that makes the Tony Hawk games great,and then some. This one is a no-brainer: got a PS2? then get Tony Hawk 3.

Closing Quote:''Not a process of cloning, but re-inventing''

Score:10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/01, Updated 11/15/01