It’s an arduous task for sequels to better their previous effort. It has to improve on the basic principles of the game and not feel rehashed. But Neversoft has done it again. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is the best skateboarding game ever.
New goals, tricks, and the revert are the name of the game in THPS3. The new goals include a lot more interaction with the environment and the people in it – impress skaters, dunk the factory foreman, stop the pickpockets – all are addicting as hell and add much more to the challenge than collecting skate letters or getting a high score.
There are new flatland tricks to pull off. But the biggest addition to the THPS3 series is the revert to link vertical combos. After landing from a trick, players can click the R or L trigger to revert and continue their combo to trick to big points.
The environments are bigger and better than the last two installments. Hawk flies high in eight initial environments – Foundry, Canada, Rio, Suburbia, Airport, Skater’s Island, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. The environments are more lively now thanks to a number of people walking about in the level. The level designs are superb and there are tons of objects for players to connect grinds, tricks, and combos.
The visuals have made a big leap in THPS3. Tony now rides at 60fps to make the THPS experience faster and more fluid. There are tons of new bail animations to better represent your skater getting beat up. New animations include losing balance on a grind and landing on the rail (ouch) and skinned knee animations. They’re more appropriate for the moves you’re trying to pull off and add a bit more realism to Tony’s world.
There are hiccups in the frame rate when the screen hits lots of objects. But for the most part it doesn’t effect gameplay. The camera can get blocked by objects after a bail making it impossible to see for a second, but nothing major.
The THPS2 modes have made their way back into THPS3. These include the create-a-skater mode, the park editor, and the VS. modes. There are two new additions to the VS. mode – Slap! And King of the Hill. In Slap! players collide and the faster one stays standing. In King of the Hill, players find a crown in the area and try to hold it for a pre-set amount of time. The guy with the crown skates slower so other skaters can try to nab it. The online mode is nixed in the GCN version, but they’re still fun with a friend.
The soundtrack in THPS3 is okay. There’s a mix of hip-hop and rock this time around, but some of the songs are downright annoying. Of course, it’s all according to taste, and THPS3 lets you pick and choose which songs you want to hear.
The GameCube’s controller does an admirable job on THPS3. It’s the most comfortable using the analog stick to control the skater. It doesn’t feel drifty and is perfectly responsive to pull off tricks. You can use the D-pad but it feels too small to get a good grip on the player. The button layout is not a problem. The only real gripe is to use the analog triggers to pull off the revert. It would feel better if there was a regular digital trigger to push instead of having to push all the way down to click the trigger button. But the transition from PS2 to GCN pad isn’t a big deal.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is the best of the series and holds it own against the bag full of new extreme sports titles. The Hawk may have competition, but it still flies higher than anyone else.
