"Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is better than its predecessor in every way possible"

What happens when the best action sports game ever is put into a next generation video game console? The result is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 for the Sony Playstation 2. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is the sequel to Tony Hawk 2 and Tony Hawk 2 is the sequel to Tony Hawk 1. Got it.......well let’s move on.

Anyone who enjoyed the past 2 games should definitely want to play this game. This game mixes the best of the old with the best of the new. Also many more secrets are put into this game and many more options are available for this game making it the ultimate Playstation 2 game from the start.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is better than its predecessors in every single way. From enhanced graphics to enhanced control it is all in here. There is just no reason to not like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. The developers, Neversoft, did a great job at bringing back Tony Hawk’s world to the modern age.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is also one of the first Playstation 2 games to support Online play. Now with a PC, a good connection, and an Ethernet hub you can connect to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 in your PC, while of course challenging many people all around the world. That makes the experience even better and more worthwhile.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is also jam-packed with many different options to choose from. From creating a player to editing a skate park, the options are just relentless. Also things like editing a skate park have been improved greatly and it is now much easier to edit your own skate park then it was in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. Also for Create a Player you now have tons of stuff to choose from and sometimes the result just comes out hilarious. It is even possible for you to create characters that look like TV stars or video game stars.

The game also offers training modes so you can get adjusted to the environments or areas around you. This is one of the best modes because you got free oppurtunities to do in that level. Now there is no time limit or anything so you can do anything you want. This can also be very useful to you because it can teach you how to advance from level to level and also how to find many of the level’s secrets.

In my opinion the game’s weakest point comes in the form of the game’s 2 player mode. There’s just not enough options that can make you really enjoy this game with your friends. But I guess if you really want to get the most out of this game then you best start to play 2 player mode. There may not be a lot of options, but they sure fun as hell to play.

The game’s main time-spender comes in the form of Single player mode. Single player mode has improved greatly from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and it shows. The levels are now some of the best detailed levels in a game ever. These levels are also huge as hell making you not complete the stage’s objectives any time soon. Some of the areas featured in this game are areas like Canada and Tokyo.

There are also a lot of levels. There are about 8 levels where you can compete for objectives and then 3 more levels which are played out like competitions, where you must avoid falling while racking up tons of points. As I mentioned above about areas like Canada and Tokyo, well there’s a lot more. There’s a Foundry level, which is like a boiler room like place. And there is also the Los Angeles level where you can actually create an earthquake there. COOL!

The only with single player mode comes in the form of it being too easy. What would have been really nice would have been if the developers added difficulty settings or something, so then people can just stuff on the stuff they say. However, new players to the series or even returning players can at times also find themselves at bad situations. So please don’t think it is that easy.

This game also offers much improved objectives or missions to do in the level you are associated with. Now things like causing an earthquake and getting a pedestrians head out of an ice pole are just some of the objectives you will have to go through.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 also gets rid of the money system introduced in part 2. In part 2 getting money was crucial to your quest sort of speak. With this game getting rid of that system, then you can tell just how much the developers care about their fans. To now advance to another level you will need to do a number of objectives and complete them. The more you complete the more levels you will unlock.

To compete in Single player mode you of course got to choose a character to do it for you. This game features many characters. Some of these characters include Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Kareem Campbell, Bucky Lasek, Elissa Steamer, Rune Glifberg, Eric Koston, Geoff Rowley and a couple of more. Bob Burnquist, who was a character in the first 2 games was taken out of this game because he signed to be in another skate boarding game made by Konami. He was of course the main spokesperson for that game. So the numbers can be even the developers added a new character. This character is called Bam Margera. Bam is currently a star on Mtv’s show Jackass, but many do not know that he is also a pro skate boarder. Well he is and this game shows his techniques in many different ways.

Just like its predecessors Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 also offers up many tricks for you to do. The developers added more moves and to round out all the moves is this trick, the Revert. The Revert is a 180 spin that is done just as your skateboard touches the ramp when you are coming down from vert or lip tricks. After getting used to doing this move you will notice that it is one of the biggest differences between this game and its predecessor. In Tony Hawk 2 a trick called the manual was also introduced. Do not fret the manual is still in this game and linked with a trick + a revert then + a manual, you will obviously score tons of points. It is even possible to score one million points. Wow!

There are also a lot of specials your character can do in this game. In the beginning your character will have 3 specials. As you advance into the game and start to perform your specials, then you will start to unlock new ones. Your character can now have up to 5 specials ranging from grind, vert, and lip specials.

We all know the characters in this game aren’t perfect, but do you want to make them perfect? Now hidden in levels are stat points. By collecting these you will be able to enhance your characters stats. This can make some impossible tasks possible.

This game also runs pretty fast. Despite many saying that the Sony Playstation 2 is all about loading, well this game definitely puts that to rest. Everything is done really fast and it takes full advantage of what the PS2 can do.

Talking about taking advantage, the graphics then will ultimately take advantage of the PS2. The graphics are nicely done, especially the levels and the backgrounds. While still offering some jaggies here and there and also some bad character models, the graphics are still pretty darn good. Also the framerate is quite nice despite some problems.

The sound is also well done too. The soundtrack itself offers many hip hop and rock songs to satisfy many. Artists like Del Da Funky Homosapien and Alien Ant Farm are all heard in the game. The sound effects are also nicely done and the pedestrians are pretty funny at times.

This game also suffers the effect of being the first Playstation 2 online game. But it is hella’ fun playing this game online. Just note that you will need really good hardware to play this game online, but trust me when it is all said and done online play is one of the coolest factors in this game.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 also offers up many secrets for you to unlock. By just beating the game once you will already have some “new” stuff to play with. Also hidden characters like Darth Maul and Wolverine make the experience even better and it even brings this game to a standard comedy approach.

Overall Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is infinitely more better, more polished, and more enhanced than its predecessor. So to sum that short expression up in the easiest of ways, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is better than its predecessor in every way possible. This is definitely the game worth owning for Sony’s Playstation 2 video game console.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/02, Updated 09/03/02