No hack, talentless goons need apply! This game seeks only lively participants, quick of wit and foot, to participate in a no-holds-barred, trick-filled extravaganza the likes of which the skater world has never seen.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is the latest in the Tony Hawk series of skate games and, as you've probably guessed, is a sports title centered around that fine street art, skateboarding. As a mystically cool skate celebrity, you'll get to skate off cars, pipes, rails, and pretty much anything else you can find in your way, all the while gaining more points and goals that will let you progress through the game.
Without a storyline, Tony Hawk 3 relies on strong, yet strange, skateboarding gameplay. You've got thirteen skaters to start out with, featuring many of the most popular faces in modern skateboarding, like Steve Caballero, Bam Margera, Elissa Steamer, and of course, the ever popular Tony Hawk. These skaters, combined with eight different levels and a horde of unlockable secrets, give you plenty of breathing room and space to play.
As a skate sim, the first thing you'll need to get used to is the movement. You'll be skating the entire time, and just getting your board to stand still is a difficult thing. Of course, that doesn't really matter much, since points and goals are only earned while moving, so chances are, you won't want to stop anytime soon. Your skater is controlled with the analog sticks, controlling forward and side to side roll, with the buttons taking care of tricks like ollies, nollies, manuals, plants, and wallrides. It'll take a little practice to get used to it, but the game learns easily and slowly steps you up to the more advanced moves. You've got a different set of tricks you can perform in the air, like flips and grabs, and you've also got the ability to grind on pretty much any surface imaginable.
The game itself has a few different gameplay modes to try. You can go through a freestyle session, a single ride skate session, or the career mode, where you'll unlock the different tracks and riders that pop up throughout the game. If you're new to these kinds of games, there's also a fairly good tutorial mode that helps you practice and refine your skills. The career mode is probably where you'll want to spend most of your time, as freestyle and single session modes focus purely on gaining points and pulling off tricks. Career mode lets you advance through the different levels of Tony Hawk 3, unlocking items as you go.
Although points are important in career mode, they're just one part of the whole, as this mode requires you to complete special tasks to unlock each new area. In each stage, there are three different levels of points you'll need to score and each task is unique to the stage itself. You'll find things like "impress 5 skaters," "push the foreman into the pool," or "grind off of the molten bucket." Some of the later stages require accumulating a certain number of points or placing in the top three of a given number of levels, but they're all pretty self-explanatory.
On top of that, there are quite a few little secret items to unlock, mostly in the form of new skaters, like Darth Maul and Wolverine. Each stage has a secret area or two, which you'll unlock as you complete the goals in each stage. Start by freeing all of the valves in the Foundry level, the first part of the game, and you'll get access to the Reactor Core.
You'll also need to pay attention to your skater as you play. You'll find a series of stat points as you play, shaped like little Tony Hawk logos. As you gather these points, you can later use them to modify your character, improving his ability to trick, spin, speed, or manual his way to victory. With the wide variety of skaters to choose from, each with a different focus on their abilities, you've got an excellent choice for your starting point. Rack up enough stunt points, and you may even be able to max out the abilities of the skater you're using.
Lastly, there's also a fully furnished park editor built into Tony Hawk 3. I didn't get to play around with it much, but what I did see, I liked. While you can't get levels as absurd and strange as the normal in-game areas, you can construct many of the traditional skate park styles that aren't available in the career mode. The park editor lets you construct a fairly large stage (large for Tony Hawk 3 that is), using a literal crapload of scenery and skatable objects. I live not too far from a large skatepark myself, and I was able to model it pretty well in the park editor. It isn't a large park, nor is it complex, but the choice of grinding spots, ramps, and pipes is very good.
There are many different multiplayer modes you can use. Two players can play split screen on a single PS2, or you can play over the internet or LAN with up to four players. "Graffiti" mode lets you try to outdo your opponent with tricks, which are tagged with your color of choice when you complete the trick. "Trick Attack" is a timed mode that has you competing for most trick points scored, and "H-O-R-S-E" sets you to a single best trick competition, trading back and forth. "Slap!" allows you to pit your skater against another skater, seeing who stands after you collide. The "King of the Hill" competition sets you looking for the crown, which you'll need to hold for the set time limit to win. You can also do a free skate mode with multiplayer, but that's a given.
I enjoyed both the levels and the characters in Tony Hawk 3. Each seemed to have a goodly amount of detail and care put into them, with semi-realistic texturing, and (usually) complex environments in which to show off your skateboarding skills. The skaters were probably the most impressive thing -- not only can you pick from several different real-world riders, but there's tons of hidden characters (including Darth Maul and the Neversoft Eyeball man from the credits), and even a custom skater tool that lets you create a unique skater. That last one is significant just from the amount of stuff you can change about your character. From weight to skin color, and even clothing and tattoos, you could literally make hundreds of different characters. Most all of the levels were attractive and pleasing to the eye, featuring plenty of good art material, and a lot of background 'filler' like other skaters and pedestrians. The only thing I was really disappointed by was the size of each arena, as far too many of them seemed small and cramped. In particular was the Canada stage, as it really left me feeling like it was only half a level.
On the other hand, Neversoft made good use of the DVD-ROM qualities of the PS2, and included a lot of short little videos, showcasing the talents of many of the skaters featured in the game. They also populated the game with a lot of the test footage, showing you exactly how painful a nasty little crash can be, or how much skating was needed to generate good motion effects for the game.
Ah... often the best part of a sports game, the soundtrack of games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 often stand out for their composition and content. In particular, Tony Hawk is one of my fav's, just for bands like Alien Ant Farm, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Pennywise. With some of the best skating music I've heard in a long while, the soundtrack was better than most any other game I've got. I may be a sucker for good pseudo-punk music, but such is life. The sound effects are pretty well done, as you'll get a good sampling of different textures as you run across them, from concrete to gravel and in some cases wood. The game's only weakness is the relatively poor quality of organic sounds.
A fun title, Tony Hawk 3 isn't as well implemented as I'd have liked. Enjoyable, for certain, but lacking that unidentifiable combination of speed and ease of movement that makes games like this great, I can't say that Tony Hawk was a truly excellent title. Even after I'd played for a long while, I still found it far too easy to wipe out by landing sideways, or miss a critical rail by mere inches. Still, even with that in mind, Tony Hawk builds a strong game on solid gameplay, and has enough in the way of graphical improvement to make it a worthy successor to the Tony Hawk title.
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