steakphish's Full Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PlayStation 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 were eerily similar to eachother. While THPS 2 did pack extra punch into the game with new tricks and improved gameplay, it felt almost exactly like the first game. However, THPS3 is similar yet totally different to the first 2, but so much more fun that you'll never want to stop playing.
The programmers have scrapped the money system from THPS2, and instead have gone old skool with making tricky jumps and sick grinds to help achieve your stats. The premise is actually more like the first game, which is very welcome (I hated the money system.)
The first thing you'll notice when you begin the game is that the graphics have been given a major overhall. It plays much more smoothly and looks a lot more realistic. Now the characters move more fluidly and there are subtle changes that make the graphics really shine. For instance, when you are doing an Airwalk, after a about a second your character will start moving his/her legs, like they were walking on air. Also, there isn't as much draw in that really hurt the other games. You can see most (if not all) of the given level at any one time.
The new gameplay is what really makes the game a winner. There are a ton of new tricks (around twice as many as in THPS3), and they all look really cool. You can also modify tricks on the fly. For instance, if you do a kickflip and then quickly tap the square button again, you'll end up doing a double flip. Do it again and you get a triple kickflip. Same thing goes for most other flip tricks (ever seen a triple impossible?) That said, you can also modify grinds without having to ollie up each time. You could go from a tailslide to a crooked just like that, and keep it up as long as you can keep your balance. Same holds true for lip tricks and plants. There was a cool little trick in THPS2 where if you went into a Casper to 360 Flip, if you were completely stopped you would start freestyling. Well here, you actually have control over freestylin', so you can do all the wicked Rodney Mullen type stuff (as long as you keep your balance.) One of the coolest and most useful moves is the revert. After landing a vert trick (usually from a quarter pipe), if you hit L2 at just the right time you can do a revert, which lets you connect street and vert tricks for huge combos. Also, you can pivot your manuals, going from a manual to a nose manual and visa versa. The controls are a bit difficult to tame (probably because the game plays so smooth), so you might be crashing into walls for a few minutes before getting the hang of your character.
The characters are all back (except Bam Margera has replaced Bob Burnquist. The character maker is back, but this time there are a ton of new clothes to but on your guy so you can truly make him reflect who you are (whatever.) You can also make girl skaters this time around, so yippee.
The levels in the game are huge and dense, as well as interactive. The are a ton more things to skate on in the levels, really helping you dish out huge combos. There are also people who can hit, and they'll get mad at you, and might even push you down. The blood isn't just a bunch of dribbles this time; it's a long streak of blood that stays there for quite a while.
The sound is pretty good and the music is quite varied, but most of the tracks seem to sound like the same thing after a few run-thorughs, but it isn't enough to make you want to hit the mute button.
Good gameplay at its finest makes skating a welcome sport again.
Tony Hawk brings you into his world yet again with all-new features that'll have you high flying through Paris, Tokyo, L.A., Canada, and more. Perform...More at eBay
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