It just keeps getting better and better! UPDATE!!!
Written: Jul 21 '02 (Updated Jul 22 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: Simply the best skateboarding game around.
Cons: Gets easy after you beat it about 5 times.
The Bottom Line: All-around great. But as always, rent before buying. This has tons of replay value, so you'll be playing for weeks. I highly recommend it.
stony45's Full Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for Xbox
Well, it's been a couple of months since the last Tony Hawk 3 review. I figure that since I got it a few weeks ago I'd do a review of it. But I wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about. So here I go.
The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games have been called everything, from a dynasty to a travesty. The first title really brought the sport of skateboarding into the mainstream. The second revolutionized the way people think about sports games. Now, how to improve upon that? Well, here's the answer: cram in a bunch of hidden characters, redefine the whole trick system, put in a useful create-a-skater and skate park features, and you've got yourself a winner. Also called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
The first thing I noticed when I popped THPS3 in for the first time were, as usual, the graphics. The leap that THPS3 made over the last one was unbelievable. Characters and animation looked silky smooth and believable. Much more attention was paid to the detail, as now you can actually see the individual parts of the face, not just a blur. But the graphics are just a small part of THPS3.
13 professional skaters are under your control, as well as 9 hidden characters and an infinite amount of created skaters. Skaters like Eric Koston, Chad Muska, Rodney Mullen, and of course, Tony Hawk, fill this lineup as well. Sadly missed (by me anyway) was Bob Burnquist, who went off to be the headliner for a horrible skating game. I forget what it was called, but it was nothing like THPS. Anyway, the main point of the game is to skate around nine different locales, which I will describe a little later, complete tasks, and move on. Along the way, you will encounter many people that you can interact with (in a way). They will cheer if you land a big trick, and yell if you run them over. It's great.
If you are new to the THPS series, one of the biggest things you must learn how to do is to pull off tricks. You simply cannot win without learning how to hit the right combination of buttons to land a huge combo. I'll give you the bare bones controls. The most important button you will use is the "A" button. That button is designated for the crouching and jumping of your skater, also called the ollie. Ollieing is the most vital part of any skater's repertoire. Once you've mastered that (it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds), you're ready to move on.
To pull off a trick, you must first get speed (hold down "A"), then ollie (release "A") and hit a combination of the "B" or "X" buttons and a direction. "B" button tricks are called grab tricks. Your skater will grab onto the board and hold on until you let go. "X" button tricks are called flip tricks. Your skater will flip his or her board with either his or her feet, hands, or otherwise. Flip tricks are faster, but worth less points, and you don't have to hold down the button. If you do too much in the air, your skater will bail. Basically, if you put in too many commands without enough air, your skater will fall and all the points you would have earned will be lost. Also, your special meter will be erased (more on this later).
There are other tricks aside from grab and flip tricks. There are grinds. To grind, get your skater close to a rail, ollie, and press the "Y" button along with a direction. You will do a certain type of grind. While grinding, there will be a big meter in the center of the screen. That is your balance. If the arrow starts moving to the left, hit the thumbpad to the right, and vice versa. The longer you keep the grind going, the more points you get. If you let the arrow go too far to one side, your skater bails, unless you're riding the lip of a pool or quarterpipe. If you let the arrow fall towards the entrance of the pool or quarterpipe, your skater will just fall into the pool or quarterpipe, and you will gain the points you earned.
Also available are lip tricks, manuals, and reverts. Lip tricks are like grinds, except that you can only do one while skating perpendicular to a pool or quarterpipe lip. Skate up a pool or quarterpipe, hit a combination of "Y" and a direction, and watch your skater do some fancy trick that you will probably never be able to do. There is a balance meter here, also, except now the arrow will go up and down. If you let it go all the way up, your skater will bail. If you let it go all the way down, your skater will drop back into the pool or quarterpipe unharmed.
Manuals completely changed the face of THPS. They let you continue a trick on the ground. To perform a manual, hit up, then down quickly. To perform a nose manual, hit down, then up quickly. If performed successfully, yet another balance meter will appear. The arrow will move up and down. When manualing, your skater will slow down, and eventually stop. If you are manualing, you can let the balance meter rise to the top, and if you are nose manualing, you can let it fall to the bottom and you will be fine. Also, while doing manuals, you can hit the "R" trigger to perform a pivot. This will give you more points and a higher multiplier, but it is dangerous especially if the arrow is near either the top or the bottom, because pivoting will switch from a manual to a nose manual or vice versa.
The last, and newest, type of trick is called the revert. It is the last piece of the puzzle to create gigantic combos. To perform a revert, skate up a quarterpipe or pool, do a trick, then just before landing or while landing, hit the right trigger. You will perform a revert. After reverting, do a manual to continue your combo. Keep going up quarterpipes, hitting tricks, reverting, and manualing to create huge scores.
If you're a newbie, you're probably asking, "What is he talking about points for?" Well, I'll tell you. Each trick has a certain point value. Some are worth more than others. For example, your basic kickflip is worth 100 points, whereas a wrap around (a grab trick) is worth 700 when you tap the "B" button. Holding down the "B" button while doing a grab trick will increase your score. Also, if you rotate in the air while grabbing, it will increase your score even more. Most skaters can do a 540 (one and a half turns) easily. If you do a 540 kickflip, it will be worth 300 points. A 540 wrap around holding down the button is worth over 2,000 points. Doing a big combo, like a 540 Judo to revert to manual to 540 Benihana to revert to manual to kickflip is worth over 10,000 points. You probably don't know what I'm talking about, but it's okay. You will when you try out the game.
There is one more thing to talk about. Special tricks. When you perform several tricks successfully in a row without bailing, your special meter will go up. Every successful trick will add to the bar, which will turn green. When you get enough points, the bar will start flashing red and yellow. During this time, you can perform special tricks by hitting two certain directions and one of the trick buttons. Examples: left, right, "Y"; up, down, "X"; left, down, "B". You can customize the button presses for these and any other trick you want. There are many different special tricks: flip tricks, grab tricks, lip tricks, grinds, and manuals. Each trick is worth significantly more than regular tricks, but the flip and grab tricks require more air, and the others are harder to balance. One more thing: each time you perform the same trick, the value will go down. The first time, it may be worth 300 points, the next time 225, the next 180, and so forth, until it's worth about 15 points. So mix your tricks up!
Now that I've thoroughly talked about the controls, it's time to describe the game. There are nine levels, each with their own goals you must accomplish to move on. Each lever requires a certain amount of goals you previously accomplished. The first level, the Foundry, has nine goals you must complete. Three are scoring goals (get a certain amount of points), collect the letters S, K, A, T, and E (in no particular order), find the hidden tape (usually put somewhere hard to get), and four level-specific goals. One is usually to hit, grind, or do something to 5 or 7 things. In the Foundry, it is Unjam 5 valves. All you have to do is grind on them and they open. There is a goal where you must perform a certain trick for a photographer. In most cases, it's not too tough, but later on, they get really hard. And there are a couple of completely level-specific goals that you will not see anywhere except that level. Aside from the Foundry, there is Canada, Rio, Suburbia, the Airport, Skater Island, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and the Cruiseship. You have two minutes to complete as many goals as possible. You can try each level as many times as you want.
Three of the levels (Rio, Skater Island, and Tokyo) are competition levels. In these levels, there are no goals except to score really high. You're competing against other skaters here, so you must hit big combos and not bail. High scores mean high marks from the judges. Place in the top three and win a medal. But, in these levels, you only have one minute and three rounds to impress the judges. Your top two scores are taken. The highest score is 99.9. Through my experience, if you don't give up, you can easily get 99.9 for every round. Of course, it takes many hours of practice to be able to do that.
Now what's the point of all this? Entertainment, of course! You see, when you finish the three competition levels and earn a gold medal (first place) in each, you will get a movie featuring the skater you just used. You can view these at any time in the options menu. Later on, after getting hidden characters, you will unlock movies of the Neversoft crew, trade shows, etc. NOTE: if you want to get all the movies by using created skaters, forget it. Only the first time you beat the game with a created skater will you unlock a movie.
When you complete the entire game (all goals and gold medals), you will unlock something else. Sometimes it's a level, sometimes it's a hidden character, and sometimes it's a cheat. There are four levels, nine hidden characters, and about a dozen cheats to be unlocked. The hidden characters are great. You can unlock X-Ray, Neversoft's mascot: a skeleton with a heart. Other skaters to unlock are: Darth Maul, Wolverine, Officer Dick, Private Carerra, Ollie the Magic Bum, Kelly Slater, The Demoness, and the Neversoft Eyeball. Also, you can unlock cheats, like perfect rail balance, super stats, perfect manual balance, and more.
Along the way, you'll notice large yellow icons that bear the THPS3 logo. Do not shy away! These are stat points, used to make your skater better. Each skater has different stats in these categories: Air, Hangtime, Ollie, Speed, Spin, Switch, Rail Balance, Lip Balance, and Manual Balance. Air has to do with how much air you get off a quarterpipe, Hangtime has to do with how long you stay up in the air, Ollie is how high you ollie, Speed is how fast you go, Spin is how fast you spin in the air, Switch measures how well you skate riding switch (your skater's non-dominant stance), and the Balance categories have to do with how well you balance on rails, lips, and manuals. NOTE: when you put the stats up to their highest point, that does not necessarily mean they're perfect.
Also along the way, you'll find things called Decks. They look like the Hidden tapes, out of the way and rotating. These are basically new skateboard designs. Not too important, but cool to look at.
Well, that's a ton of information. Take a few minutes and rest. I really can't describe how to play the game, or give hints. How you play the game is up to you. If you want to rely completely on grinds, go ahead. But you will have to do something else. All in all, I find that what it all boils down to is a great skating game with a ton of depth and replay value. If you have played one of the earlier Tony Hawk games, you won't be disappointed. This is the cream of the crop, the best of the best. Even if you don't like sports games, you'll be impressed by THPS3. It's just too good to pass up.
One more thing: please feel free to make comments on this, or any of my other reviews. Did I leave something out? Did I cover everything well enough? Too well enough? I like hearing from you. Please, after reading this review, comment on it. Thank you.
NEW INFORMATION!!!
A kind epinions member pointed out that there was one important issue that I had foolishly left out: sound! I can't believe that I left that out. Oh, well. If anyone is still reading this, here's a quick look at the sound (that sounds odd).
The sound effects are limited, but effective. There are the sounds of the wheels on the skateboard, your environment, you (when you bail), and other sound effects that really make the game realistic. But what really makes the THPS series stand out is it's great soundtracks. Well, they aren't great, but at least they have a few good tracks. THPS3 has rock and rap as it's soundtrack. Bands like Alien Ant Farm, Reverend Horton Heat, and Zebrahead make up the filler. There are four tracks I enjoy listening to, but I'm a metal fan. The four tracks I enjoy are: "96 Quite Bitter Beings" by CKY, "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead, "N Pulse" by Mad Capsule Markets, and (my personal favorite) "I'm Destroying the World" by Guttermouth. Imagine a combination of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the guys who did "Dueling Banjos", add in a dash of insanity, and blend well, and you've got something like Guttermouth. It's a great song.
I hope that was enough for the sound and music. If you have any comments, feel free to write. I'm open to criticism.
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