Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

"Ollie, flip, and grab your way to victory"

The Gameboy Color redentions of this popular console game failed to capture the essence of the game. THPS 2 for the GBA was a superb game that lost some popularity because of the change in view (isometric rather than behind the skater). How does THPS 3 fare? Read on...

Gameplay
Awesome. The THPS games, on both the consoles and other systems, have been heralded for their superb gameplay. This particular game doesn't fail to please. When you play THPS, you get to choose between three different modes: Career Mode, Free Skate, and Single Session. A Single Session is one 2:00 minute run through a level with a skater. Free Skate is what it suggests, it allows you to skate without time restrictions. The really good part of this game is the Career Mode.

Career Mode is ridiculously fun. You have to take your skater through 6 levels (2 that are competitions), completing goals, finding stat points, finding skateboards, and winning medals. Each level (except competition levels) have goals to accomplish, such as get a high, pro, or sick score, collect the letters S-K-A-T-E, or find the hidden tape. Other goals are actually specific to the level, like grind 5 valves or melon over the pipe. One interesting feature of this career mode is that beating the game fully once unlocks a special Sponser Mode which is just Career Mode with things changed. This doubles the amount of career modes. Another interesting thing is that the goals are different depending on whether your skater is a vert or street skater. Allowing for more replayability.

One new feature of this game is the Create-A-Skater feature. You can only create one skater but you have tons of options in creating them. You can choose shirts, logos, pants, shoes, tattoos (legs, chest, arms), their complexion and more. This game has tons of unlockables. Some include movies, clothes, new skaters, a new level, cheat codes and more...

Graphics
Stunning. The graphics of the previous Tony Hawk Pro Skater were greatly improved in this game. The blank faces and boards were replaced with improved graphics. The skaters are superbly drawn out, with the designs on their shirts or their skateboards easily recognizable. The levels have very good graphics, and so does the menus etc... Nothing in this game has ''bad'' graphics (unless you compare it to it's console cousins of course). The opening menu is especially notable in graphics because of how sleek it looks.

Sound
The music in this game hasn't been improved very much from the previous game. They probably used the same tracks even! The music doesn't have any words but fit the game fairly well. The music in the game cycles between 10 rock tracks, and the music can be turned off. The sounds of skating are very good though, the falls, grinds, and landings all sound very good.

Replay Value
High, especially if you plan to fully beat the game. If you want to fully beat the game, you have to beat career mode with each skater (twice), find all of the gaps, complete all goals, win all medals, find all skateboards, and find all stat point upgrades. The game may become boring after a while for some people, but resting yourself from this game for a short while will probably remedy this.

Pros:
- Significant improvement of THPS 2 for the GBA
- Amazing graphics
- Different career modes for vert and street skaters
- Extra career mode (Sponser mode) for each skater
- Fun gameplay
- 6 levels and 1 unlockable level
- Superb Create-a-skater-mode
- Unlockable skaters, outfits, etc...
- Gameplay more similar to the console THPS games

Cons:
- Graphics occasionally lag
- The difficulty is on the easy side

Buy or Not?
If you bought THPS 2 for GBA or just like this genre, than I would recommend that you buy it. People who didn't like the isometric viewpoint from THPS 2 shouldn't buy this game. This game is a complete improvement over THPS 2, and I'd recommend it to almost everyone.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/03, Updated 01/20/03