"Neversoft takes the game a new direction, and it rocks..."

Overview-
The Tony Hawk series started the whole Extreme Sports ''boom'' that games have experienced recently, but with the THPS series getting repetitive, Neversoft throws a curveball at us with this game.

You create your own skater, and start him off with nothing but a crappy board, and help him rise to the elite ranks of Tony Hawk himself...doing many other things along the way.

Graphics- 8/10
The Graphics are good, but nothing spectacular. You still get the occasional stuck halfway in a wall, or in between two objects, but overall, the character models look good. And your character looks real good in all the cutscenes. The major flaw may or may not even be a flaw. When creating my skater, I put a skull head on him. But to my surprise...there was a gap between his head and his neck when I was skating and in the cutscenes...creepy....

Gameplay- 9/10
Add up everything from the other THPS games, and add a few new moves, and it rocks. I love the easy controls in this game. And some of the cool things the great people at Neversoft added was the extra manual/lip moves. Instead of just using the frontside and backside manual, you can do all kinds of cool things like a pogo, a handstand, and a spacewalk just by pressing any button twice.

Sound- 7/10
The worst part about this game, and it's not THAT bad. I hate the soundtrack though. I think it's horrible. THPS1 and 2 had some great music, but this is the worst. And I wish you could change the voice of your skater instead of having the same voice in all my games reguardless of my skaters age, race, etc. Erics voice is the worst thing ever...he's such a sissy...But I do like the ability to add sound effects to your created tricks.

Story- 9/10
I gave this a 9 mainly for just HAVING a story. I was glad to finally play this and know why I was doing certain things that I wouldn't normally do. The story itself is mediocre, but decent.

Online- 8/10
After I beat the game, I didn't know what else to do. I got online with it, and it added a whole new way to play. With a nice selection of games to chose from, it's fun to compete with other skaters. And the ability to actually shoot a fireball out of your board at an online enemy can't hurt...

Overall- 9/10
The best game in the Tony Hawk series as far as I'm concerned. THPS2 is close behind, but this is better. Buy this game, it's very addictive. After you beat it, go back and do all the goals...after that...go play with all your cheats you unlocked, because that adds a ton of extra fun too. And then you can always go back and start a new game on a different difficulty and unlock even better stuff. Definitely a great game for anyone.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/03