ltrain's Full Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PlayStation 2
Tony Hawk is a legendary skateboarder and has been since the 1980s. He's the man behind Birdhouse and nearly single handedly responsible for bringing skating back to kids in the mainstream for a new generation. As Hawk was doing this he found an outlet never before really tapped by skating: video games. This game is the third installment of the series and was released for the Playstation 2 game system. Other systems also carried this game but those are other reviews as it's truly a different game on another platform.
What do you do?
In Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (THPS3) you skateboard through levels such as a trailer park, cruise ship, three different skate competition parks, an airport and a city's downtown bustin' tricks for points. String a collection of tricks together for bigger points. Your environment interacts with you...skate through a plate glass window to watch it break, hit a collection of rails to cause an earthquake, or just bump into other skaters and plant them on the concrete.
Game modes
Naturally, the most inclusive version of the game is career mode. Here you skate against goals such as point totals or specific tricks to unlock new skating areas or skaters. You cannot access all eight of the games skating areas right out of the box...you'll have to open them through the career mode.
Create-A-Skater is a nice touch for the game. You can select from a variety of body styles, faces, hats, shirts, pants, decks, and wheels to put together the skateboard and skater combination that does it for you. Some cool combinations are in here and it's not really hard to put them together. Try on a pirate hat next time you get big air!
2 Player mode hasn't been overlooked. Play a good game of horse, skate against each other by claiming environment pieces with big tricks in graffiti mode, or simply free skate without a time limit in the same environment. There are more multiplayer modes available online but I've never tried those.
How's it look?
Even though this was a game released early in the PS2 lifespan it still looks pleasing to the eye. It's programmed to be every bit as detailed and smooth as Madden 2006 which came much later. As a matter of fact, it's not far behind Hitman 2 or Resident Evil Outbreak in my opinion.
Both the skaters and environments have a great deal of little details and you rarely get malfunctions like skaters going right through things. It's hard to see the decks while you skate but in the selection stage the decks and the grip tap look very solid...just like the real thing.
Soundtrack
A major effort went into assembly a soundtrack that was pleasing to the masses but still true to the roots of 'skater music'. What we're left with is a limited collection of about ten tracks that replay entirely too often. I really like Motorhead's Ace of Spades until I'd played this game for around a year and heard it thousands of times...it's truly ruined that song for me!
Other than the repetition and fact that most of the soundtrack is comprised of lesser known songs, it does sound good. It's not all out skater music but it's not too bad of an attempt considering how corporate the game series was at this point.
Unlockables
Naturally you'll want to play the career mode to gain access to all of the feature in Tony Hawk 3. As you skate through you'll open the availability of additional levels until you've opened all eight.
When skating be sure to look for the boards that are hidden through the levels. Grab them and you'll unlock new rides that you can choose in the skate shop.
Need a new character? If the 12 pros that ship with the game aren't enough and create-a-skater doesn't do it for you then maybe you'll be happy when you've skated enough to unlock Wolverine (Marvel Comics), Darth Maul (Star Wars), or one of the in game characters that become playable like the security guard.
Replayability
If a game is seven years old and I'm still playing it enough to write an Epinion about it that should tell you a great deal. Not only do I still enjoy it but I've found that it's a game younger kids can get enough of a hang of to enjoy quickly. This disc spins in my PS2 about 5 to 10 percent of my game time in a given year which is more than any other game except Madden Football.
Overall
The game has a sort of lonely feel to it because there are few characters involved outside the skater himself/herself. It's not really a big detraction but it is something you'll notice once you've gotten used to newer offerings from THPS or most other current PS2 games.
It's fun though and I've had hours of enjoyment out of it. If you are buying for a younger child this is a great selection and some teens will get a bang out of it. As a first skating game this is a perfect choice: easy enough to play and challenging enough to replay. If you've already bought the newer THPS games this is a true downgrade and should be passed up.
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