Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

"Sad. Just really sad. How could a series so good on consoles end up being sub-par on portables?"

Very few people thought that Tony Hawk could be done on the GBA. Well, they were right. One of the games main problems are the controls, and by that, I would need to say the lack of buttons really just degrades the whole playing experience. The game overall feels unpolished (even though PS2 and Gamecube versions of the game had been out for over 4 months before this version even came out) making me feel that Activision had pressured VV to get it out along with the Xbox version. Just because of the physical limitations on the GBA, Tony Hawk should not of been done on the GBA, period.

The Gameplay is standard Tony Hawk, with multiple goals per level. In a two minute time period, you can quite possibly accomplish all of the goals in the level, but it is usually better to do a few goals per two minute run. Many of the same goals are brought from the home console games, like collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E in the level, or getting a certain amount of points. However, because the levels are different and parts could not be included, a few new challenges were added. If you have played a THPS game before, you know what to expect. However, the main problem that I have with the gameplay are the levels themselves. Because of the way the levels are laid out, you can never see more than a small part of the level at a time, making it harder for you to set up trick lines, and you may end up not even seeing yourself because of the isometric view point. Multiple times I have been just casually riding around looking for some S-K-A-T-E letters, when I somehow get pushed up like I was on a vert ramp, which does get annoying, very fast.
Along with single play, you have VS. mode, which could use one GBA or they could hook up with the link cable for HORSE, king of the hill, or time attack games. This is a worthy addition, and if you can find another person to play with, it does make the game slightly better.
You can’t really recreate the feel of a Tony Hawk game on a handheld. With the loss of 4 face buttons that you have on the home consoles lost to just an A and B button, making the L and R buttons for flip and grab tricks. However, the L and R buttons also act as the revert buttons, which, if you try and do a string of multiple grabs tricks on vert ramps, you have about a 50/50 chance of pulling off the revert, or the game thinks that you tried to do a flip/grab trick, making you bail and end the string. With the controls being neutered, how could you really make the gameplay good?

By Graphical standpoints, it is really amazing what Vicarious Visions was able to do with the GBA, but now, with the N-Gage getting a full port of the first Tony Hawk, really, fuzzy little characters made of with so few polygons will just not work. The isometric viewpoint (to create a level that looks 3D, but it really is 3D) just does not work. The camera is a bit too low for most of the levels (but it stays stable, and doesn’t jerk around suddenly, a plus) making it harder for you to see if that wall really is a wall, or actually a rail you and grind on to. The 2D backgrounds have very little detail to them, and it gives pretty much everything in the game a grainy, washed out look. The few levels that were ported (a few of the levels were left behind, I’m afraid to say) feel almost identical in color, with large patches of brown everywhere. Everything seems to be one uniform color, you will predominantly see black, gray, white, and brown colors. Given the GBA’s ample color palette, it seems it could of used some sprucing up.

Now, the sound. Oh boy, what did they do? The THPS games are filled with many musical acts that can give everybody a few songs that they would like. Now, it seems that you only have 5 songs, and they are just instrumental head banging rock tunes, but that is understandable with the limitations of the GBA cartridge format. Each song is now just large amounts of useless drivel that is really seems like about 20 seconds of the same tune being played over and over again. The sound effects sound above average though, it sounds like they took them right out of the console games themselves. Also, the first five seconds of the main menu music is played while you are at the main menu. Oh boy, five seconds! Better to put the volume down very low when you play.

Even though I think that the THPS games do have a large amount of replay in them trying to get better and better scores overall, I feel because the experience is just lessened because of it. Just the game alone is average, but I feel that because of the bad controls, the horrible sound, and again, I express a feeling of rushed work in this product, I cannot express why anyone would want to buy the Tony Hawk series on a portable. Please, stick to their home console brethren only.

Reviewer’s Score: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/03