"Simultaneously strong and disappointing"

Audio/Visual- 7 out of 10

The sounds, always a strong suit of Tony Hawk, remain convincing and well recorded. Different terrain sounds nicely realistic beneath your wheels; cobblestone sidewalks clutter on your wheels, shoes scrape across griptape in kicktricks, rails clang loudly on grinds. Though the sound loop used for grinding on metal could have been spiced up a little bit, the sounds generally serve the game well.

And as with both previous installments, I play the game sans soundtrack. Back to its punk roots, phasing out the hip hop that showed its face briefly on THPS2, there were only a few songs that I would consider listening to while playing the game. But, as the soundtrack in these kinds of games is rather unimportant to me, I would consider the lack of variety to be a non-issue.

Visually the game disappoints. The levels are well drawn enough, the textures have enough variety to prohibit too much outright complaining... and yet there is something generic about the appearance of the game. The skaters are decently animated; the faces are well illustrated and are near spitting images of their real life counterparts... and yet, their bodies and clothes have a very blank, unimpressive look. There is a sort of paper doll paste-up quality to the players clothing that detracts from the realism created by the sounds.

Gameplay- 6 out of 10

The nicest addition to the game is the expansion of lip tricks, the ability to transition from grind to grind, and lip trick to lip trick, the fluidity of flatland combos. This was an excellent decision by Neversoft, and is comprable to the manual addition of THPS2. The revert is nice, though a bit hard to swallow. The lip tricks are expertly animated and are smartly chosen, if delivered in the same arcadey, cranked up style as the rest of the game.

Right up until release, developers and reviewers alike raved about the ''enormous, living levels'' stressing highly interactive environments, immersive city streets bustling with traffic.

This myth is thoroughly debunked, as most games' selling points are, within the first fifteen minutes of play. Make no mistake; the levels are not bustling. The levels are sparsely populated with static spritely characters that interact with you in only the most superficial way; skate by and they'll say something. Do a trick, they'll applaud. Fall and they'll laugh. Run into them and they'll fall over. It was a bad idea to hype the immersion of the environments in a game being released so close to Grand theft Auto 3, a game which has raised the bar for immersion and environmental interaction.

also surprising is the lack of change in the skater lineup. with only one addition and one subtraction, Neversoft decided to include the internationally recognized disgrace to skateboarding Bam Margera as a playable character. Though I like to avoid personal biases, I feel that Dustin Diamond is perhaps more qualified to appear as a member of the starting lineup in a pro skateboarding game; at the very least, he is funnier and classier than Bam Margera could ever hope to be.

Bam's inclusion brings me to my main complaint about the game; I feel that turbo charging a sport such as skateboarding is redundant. skateboarding is exciting and exhillerating enough without the nitro boosted gameplay and, in their efforts to heighten the experience of gameplay, their steps to boost the sport to mythical levels serves only to subtract from the experience. Grinding on high tension wires? slamma Jamma? Ghetto Blastin'? Bam Margera? Pizza Guy? The foundry? Earthquakes? Please; you underestimate us, Neversoft. I would much rather get my pleasure from executing a good looking, well constructed line than doing phoney baloney, made up tricks in outrageous locales.

Perhaps I am old fashioned. I was brought up in the pre flatland ollie days. It just seems like neversoft spent all their time gilding the lily on a sport that is already exciting and dangerous. In terms of gameplay, Thrasher sk8 and destroy had a more intelligent look at the sport of skateboarding.

As for replay, yes there are a hundred thousand unlockables. Do they change the game or alter the experience? No. And like I've always said, I'd rather play a great game once than a mediocre game a thousand times.

Buy or Rent-

It's simple; rent it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/01, Updated 11/30/01