buffoon's Full Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PlayStation 2
I’m not a fan of skateboarding in general. Apart from being a complete geek who would look completely out of place on a skateboard, I have the balance of an inebriated double amputee with an inner ear infection. So, for a long time I steered clear of the games in this series. Well, now I’ve seen the light.
Infinite variety is practically the Holy Grail of the gaming industry, and Tony Hawk 3 comes as close to achieving that goal as any game before it. No matter how much you play this game or how good you are, you can always do better. And, more than that, there is a strong compulsion to do just that.
For those unfamiliar with the game, the player takes on the role of a skater and is then free to begin skating. To begin with, only one area is available for you to skate around in, but more can be unlocked. The gameplay of Tony Hawk is so intuitive that even the most inept gamer should soon be pulling off 360 Impossibles and 720 Airwalks. Essentially, you skate around with the directional buttons and press X to jump. When you’re in the air, simply press any direction button and either circle or square, and you’ll attempt a trick. Whether you succeed or not depends on whether or not you spend enough time in the air and whether or not you land straight. It’s best to jump of a ramp, as this gives you more air and therefore more time to pull off a trick or two. And there’s more. When you jump on or near a rail or ledge or some sort of protuberance, if you press triangle you will perform a grind. When you’re grinding you need to balance with delicate taps of the directional buttons. And then there’s the manuals. Tap up and then down (or vice versa) and you’ll start skating along on two wheels.
It’s pretty easy, but it can become dizzyingly complex. Once you’ve figured out how to link everything together (for instance, performing an air trick, followed by a revert, followed by a manual, followed by a grind, and so on) you’ll start to appreciate just how much there is to Tony Hawk 3.
The graphics are good, but not spectacular. Everything looks nice enough, but there’s nothing that will make your jaw drop. The frame rate is very fast, and the draw distance is good. In some places you can see from one side of the level to the other, and the frame rate won’t drop one iota. The skaters are well animated, and there is a greater variety of stack animations than in the previous games, but the improvement isn’t massive.
The sound is also not spectacular. The sound effects are adequate, and there’s quite a bit of chatter going back and forth between the inhabitants of the skateable environments, but there’s nothing to write home about. And, in my honest opinion, the music in this game is inferior to either of the first two in the series. I’m not a big fan of the punk/hip-hop genres represented in this game, and there’s just not much in the soundtrack that appeals to me. But hey, that’s just me.
Also somewhat disappointing is the new levels. Sure, they’re a lot of fun to skate around in, but there are only nine of them, and none of them are particularly massive or ingenious. The final level, The Cruise Ship, is pretty big, and there’s a lot to see in every other level, but I kind of expected more from a next-generation Tony Hawk game.
Oh well, never mind, this game is still brain-dazzlingly fun to play. The search for perfection of tricks is utterly compelling and massively frustrating, and I’ll be playing for quite a while yet. Everyone, not just skaters, should buy this game. It even inspired me to have a go on my nephew’s skateboard, and when my broken ankle heals, I may even try again!
Tony Hawk s Pro Skater 3 takes skateboarding to the next level thmugh its innovative technical advancements and unique gameplay features that offer fa...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.