Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

"A great Tony Hawk game that lasts, and its portable!"

A great Tony Hawk game that lasts, and its portable!

One of the great things about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is that it has lots of options, things to unlock, and best of all; it lasts longer than an average GBA game. It has a lot of the real pros and even has the newer ones that the older games did not have. Actually, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 covers so much more than what its earlier version, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 covered.

Incase some of you are wondering, this isn't the same as any other versions of this game on other systems, it has added features but then again it loses some of the features because the GBA just couldn't fit the huge levels. Don't get me wrong, the levels are big on the GBA (and still at the same time pretty decent levels), but they aren't huge like on the Gamecube.

Basically what you do is you perform tricks to score points in a certain amount of time but there is a lot more than that. In career mode, you start off on the first level and in order to progress into the end you must collect tapes to proceed on. If you collect all the tapes on your skater, you can unlock sponsor mode for the player you beat career mode with and in sponsor mode, certain objectives change and become harder and items are better hidden and take more of a challenge to get to them. If you manage to get all tapes in sponsor mode you will unlock something special. Each time you beat a players sponsor mode you will get something special unlocked every time. Not everyone's objectives are the same, vert skaters have items hidden differently then street skaters. Street skaters are more about grinding and vert skaters are more for getting air to do tricks. An example of a vert skater would be Tony Hawk and an example of a street skater would be most of the other skaters besides Tony Hawk like Chad Muska or Andrew Reynolds. There are nine goals for each level and six levels which make a total of 38 goals to complete for one mode. As you complete each level there is also hidden stat points and decks (skateboards) to collect along the way. When collecting stat points, you can boost up the stat of your choice by one point for each stat point collected; you chose what to invest in out of nine stats including air, hangtime, ollie, speed, spin, switch, rail balance, lip balance, and manual and each skater has different starting stats. And when you collect different decks, you can choose which board you want to use to add more style to your skating.

For people who never tried any other Tony Hawk Pro Skater games there is a helpful tutorial that will teach you and show you how to do some of the basics of skating in the game. Even if you don't skate this game will be a fun experience and you will know a lot in just a short time of skateboarding. Heck, I don't skate and I love the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Games.

Now each level is different in size and the way it is built. Some have lots of pipes and good for vert skaters while some are fool of stuff to grind on. There are six main levels not including any unlockable secret levels. Each level has its pros and cons and are good for certain things. Another thing is that each level has certain objectives that are just made for a level.

Another fun feature is that you could create your own skater and name it how you want and even make it look how you want. AS you go through the game you will unlock more designs for your skater for more availability on how you want your skater to look like. You may choose the main outfit, the complexion, the shirt, the logo the skater will where, the pants, the shoes, arms, legs, chests, and tattoos.

A great thing about the multi-player is that you don't need two GBA's for some of the multi-player games like horse which saves money but if you could, another GBA would always be nice along with a GBA link cable that connects to two GBA's for fun multi-player.

Overall I give this game a nine not because its real fun, but because it is a game that will last you a long time and will be hard to quit once you really get into the mood. The great thing about this game is that you won't get board doing some of the careers over because you will unlock something new every time when you complete it with a different skater. Even if you beat the game and collect every stat point and deck and goal with every skater you will still have a fun time getting high scores, beating your own and your friends scores. This game is one of those great games that GBA that would make a great buy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/02, Updated 08/25/02