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Written by: klamkilla

In the world of gaming there are essentially two types of games. There
are games that are the innovators and there are the multitudes of games
that inevitably try to leech off the success of the innovative ones. A
few notable innovative games come to mind. Games like Resident Evil, Mario
64, Final Fantasy, and Metal Gear to name a few. All of these games have
spawned countless clones that have failed to reach the greatness of which
the games that inspired them have.

One such innovative game (and the subsequent subject of this review)
has spawned more horrible clones over the past two years than any other
game listed above. The game of which I speak is none other than Tony Hawk's
Pro Skater 3.

Graphics/Sound:



Remember how great we all thought THPS2 looked on our now dead Dreamcasts?
Well THPS3 ellipses it's predecessors in every way. For the first time
Tony Hawk is running in a full 60 FPS glory. The landscape detail is incredible
everything from the steam billowing out of the foundry to the landscape
rattling earthquake debris looks incredible. Hats off to the guys at Neversoft
for doing such a great job.

A great soundtrack has always been a staple of the Tony Hawk games and
this one is no exception. Although it is not quite as good as the soundtrack
from the first game (which is in my opinion the best use of a licensed
soundtrack ever to grace a game) the songs are varied enough so that there's
something for everyone here. Songs range from artists like the more popular
Alien Ant Farm and Xzibit to underground punk favorites like Guttermouth
and A.F.I. The game also gives you the option of rearranging the playlist
based on personal preference so you can turn off the songs you don't like
and turn up the songs that you can rock out to.

Most of the sound effects are lifted from THPS2, which isn't a bad thing
because they're all top notch. Everything from rail sliding to just skating
around sounds dead on. The developers DID add quite a few new sound effects
like the grating laughter of the crowd as you bail in a competition. And
on the opposite end of the spectrum the cheers as you nail a big trick.



My main problem with the sound effects is the annoying voice the guys
at Neversoft decided to give the guy that takes your picture in some of
the levels. Whoever thought that finding the most stereotypical nerdish
white guy voice and making him say hackneyed teen buzzwords and phrases
like "Hey Tony let's see you get some phat air" isn't gaining
and credibility points in my book.

Gameplay:

It would seem that Neversoft completely retooled the career mode taking
what made the one in THPS2 great and removing the needless annoying things
cough cash system cough. Each level has 10 goals. There are the familiar
high score challenges and the S-K-A-T-E challenge to complete then there
are 6 level specific challenges. For instance in the Los Angeles level
you must grind down 4 designated rails to trigger a landscape altering
earthquake which opens up the path to reach the secret tape.

It would appear that the developers have made the competitions a bit
harder this time around. In order to place first you will need to go bigger,
bail less, and move around the park more. There are three competition
levels and in each I was only able to get a bronze medal on my first attempt
as opposed to the golds I got on the competition stages from the first
two games.

Also scattered throughout the levels in the career mode are five stat
coins. These coins can be traded in for upgrades to your overall stats
including speed, ollie, rail balance, hangtime, and several other categories.
While most are easily attainable there are a few that you will have to
go back for after you have upgraded your stats a bit.



The levels themselves, while far ahead than pretty much any other extreme
game out there aren't as well thought out as those in THPS2. Also some
of the levels are quite small (Rio comes to mind) although the fact that
a lot of the levels are also multi tiered makes up for this.

As for new features the game boasts a "revert" trick. By pressing
R2 or L2 right before landing on a quarter pipe you can pull off a trick
that much like a manual will allow you to continue on linking more tricks
and getting bigger scores. Although not quite as useful as the manual
it is still a noteworthy addition.

Appeal:

As far as lasting appeal goes THPS3 packs several multiplayer modes
and gasp an online network mode where you and three pals can skate it
out in a battle for skatepark supremacy.



Both multiplayer and network modes have a variety of game styles ranging
from the classic game of H-O-R-S-E, to trick attack where the player with
the highest scores wins, to graffiti mode where you must trick off of
as many objects as possible while stealing your opponents tagged objects
by performing tricks off of them with higher point totals.

Although I have played multiplayer mode with a friend I have yet to
try out the network play, but from what I am hearing it is very enjoyable
and for the most part lag free.

THPS3 also comes packed with a park editor and a skater editor. Both
offer a moderate amount of features and are a nice added bonus to an all
around solid game.

Conclusion:

Although I wouldn't call THPS3 as innovative as THPS2 it is still far
and away the best skateboarding game available on the Playstation 2 and
it will probably remain the end all be all skating game for PS2 until
well… THPS4 comes out. With that said this is a really great game and
with the inclusion of the network play (a first for a PS2 game) I would
expect to spend a lot of time with this one.

Gameplay: 4.0
Graphics: 5.0
Sound: 4.0
Value: 4.0
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Final Score: 4.0   (out of 5)