ESPN X Games Skateboarding

"A skateboarding game immensely overlooked!"

I've owned this game for a while now, and I've played it before Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 of course. But I wanted to see how it truly stacked up against the famous Tony Hawk series, and I have to admit even though Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a good game. I don't think it is better then ESPN X-Games Skateboarding, and to find out why you'll have to see below.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

Visuals in ESPN X-Games Skateboarding for the most part are great, and pretty impressive. But other times they can just seem bland, but that's not really a bad thing. It shows that every thing doesn't need to be flashy looking to add to the entertainment value. The graphics are very good, and even beats Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 in this area.

CONTROL: 9/10

The controls are pretty confusing at first, but in time you will get use to it and be pulling off crazy stunts in no time. Well, that just depends on the amount of time you put into learning the controls. The controls are tougher than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, but when you pull off big tricks you feel better about doing it than with the simple controls. Meaning it took more time, and practice to pull off so when you finally did it you'd be excited. You have to work more for your points in this game so if you are looking for a challenging skateboarding game then this is it.

SOUND: 10/10

The sound is great in my opinion, and the sound track is pretty sweet as well. My personal favorite of the songs on there is 'Waste' by Skrape. The sounds themselves all fit well, and sound convincing. People will scream and honk at you if you get in front of their car, they'll make comments or ask if you are all right if you fall in front of them, or they'll ''oooh'' and ''ahhhh'' at a trick you performed in front of them, and they'll even yell at you for almost hitting them. The visual interaction with the people are great. The sound is definitely great in this game.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

There are 8 skaters to chose from and while it's kinda a small list, it by no means make's it any less of a good game. The tricks are pretty easy to pull off, and link together once you've gotten the hang of the controls. The special tricks are fairly simple to pull off control wise, but some of them needs a lot of air time so make sure you are very high in the air before trying them. The gameplay is great, and very solid.

REPLAY VALUE: 8/10
FUN FACTOR: 8/10

It really depends on how much you like skateboarding, and the games themselves. With a lot of unlockable boards, and stages it makes it worth playing a lot. Plus there are a lot of hidden areas to be found, and it'll make the game fresher trying to find every secret you can. Reply value, and fun factor all really depends on the player.

OVERALL: 9/10

Overall, it's a great game worth the purchase. I definitely think it's better than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. By a lot in fact, but it's missing a Create-A-Skater sadly. But other than that I don't see any way this is worse than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. I say any skateboarding fans, or just fans of the games should buy the game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/02, Updated 04/04/02