Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (GameCube) > Reviews (8)

I’m not a very big fan of skating. For one, whenever a go near a skateboard I end up twisting my ankle or splitting my head open. To me it has no use whatever, all skating does is create broken leg after broken arm after broken face. It has no use, well, it didn’t until the Tony Hawk’s series was created. Until then, when you thought of Tony Hawk, you pictured a cereal mascot selling ‘Hawkios’ or something, but now he’s one of the best-known extreme sporters in the world. But will Tony Hawk 3 be as good as the rest of the series?

First thing you’ll notice is that Activision has been faithful to the series and kept the same controls. To loyal fans that spent half their life becoming brilliant on the other Tony Hawk games, this will be perfect. For newcomers as well, there’s nothing tricky that’ll have you not being able to enjoy the game, but you will have to practice a lot to get better. It’s one of those games that takes seconds to get used to, but weeks to master. Perfect.

Something that I especially like is the park editor. Whether you want to make a simple park with loads of jumps to brush up on your skills or make a more dangerous one with deadly traps that you have to avoid by performing the unimaginable of tricks. The great thing is, it’s completely up to you, and whatever you create it can as crazy, original and unique as you want them to be.

The visuals are nothing special. The skaters and other characters you see never make you think “Wow!’, they’re just there to be seen not admired. There are a few areas that could be seen as good. Canada, for instance, has some nice looking snow and water, nothing special, but the best visuals you’ll find on the game. But one thing that I must mention for being terrible – the backgrounds. They’re completely lack-lustre and have virtually no visual flair whatsoever, come on Activision, get your act together, this is on a Next Gen console!

The music is the traditional ‘Skater Music’ that was seen (or heard) in the rest of the Tony Hawk series. Here’s the deal – you either love it or hate it. Some will jump at the fact Activision have kept their usual music style, while some of you will be reaching for the nearest puke bag. But do hate the music, simply put it on ‘Mute’.

The track design is as insane as ever, jumping over pits of lava, burying people in snow and stopping pickpockets are just some of the things you’ll have to do. My favourite of all is Tokyo, going through loops on your skateboard has never felt better, plus with some lovely flashing lights, who could resist? Not me!

I must get this across – if you’re a skater yourself, you must get this game. On each level there are ‘Secret Tapes’ you can collect, which features footage of a certain skater or crashes. It features videos of Tony Hawk (or course), Rodney Mullen, Bam Margera, Chad Muska and all the other greats of skating. So as well as playing as your favourite skater, you can see some amazing footage of what they can actually do. Even if you’re not a fan, you’ll be amazed by what these people can do, but for skaters, this bonus footage is enough to buy the game for.

It’s worth investing in two controllers for this game. Instead of just having a usual 2-Player mode where you just have to beat your mates score, there are more 2-Player games to try out! If you wanna have a match of skill, Graffiti is great, having to perform the best tricks and cover the most area, if you prefer a ‘Cat & Mouse’ 2-Player game, King of Hill is perfect, keep the crown for as long as possible, contact sport more for you? Slap is perfect, you’ll get you pound your opponents head in! Maybe something turn based is more for you, choose Horse, you have to set a score for one trick then your foe must beat your score to give you a letter, get to Horse and lose!

The game isn’t a ‘must-buy’ title, but it is very fun to play and for skateboarding fans, all their dreams come true.

RiCkOsS