Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (GameCube)

I got this game a couple of years ago, a few weeks after I got my Gamecube. Before I even got it I knew it was going to be great, and I wasn't wrong! It's a great game!

It is the third game in the Tony Hawk series, and the aim of the game is to beat all of the levels by completing tasks in each level, until you complete the game. The types of levels in the game are famous places around the world. In these levels are 10 goals that you have to complete in order to move on to the next level. These goals include, getting high points, finding the secret tape, and usually there is about 5 or 6 objects that you have to search the level for. The levels include:

1) Foundry- This is quite a big level, with big grinding rails, lofty ramps and hydraulic presses. This is best place to practice your skills so you are ready for the rest of the game.

2) Canada- This is just like Canada with loads of trees and a mountain! There is a skate-park there where you can brush up on your skate skills, and show of to your Canadian friends.

3) Rio (Contest) - This is a great level with loads of opportunities to rack up big points which is handy during a contest to beat your fellow skate chums! While you're skating make sure to check out the great views.

4) Suburbia- In this 'friendly' little neighbourhood, jump onto the roofs of the houses, of even break into the big scary haunted house. Watch out for the crazy man and his axe.

5) Airport- This is quite a big level set in an airport. There are plenty of ramps to ride, rails to grind, and passengers to jump over! Grind the helicopter propeller outside and see it fly off.

6) Skater's Island (Contest) - The 2nd contest of the game, and this level has plenty of stuff to do here to boost you score, and get to the top of the table. Can you find the way to unlock the pirate ship outside?

7) Los Angeles- This is one of the biggest and bets levels in the game. Just watch out for that darn earthquake if you grind the right rails. Try and jump onto the flyover and do some tricks while jumping off, don't forget to bend you knees!

8) Tokyo (Contest) - The final contest of the game, and probably the best (certainly the most colourful level!) This level is wonderful, with all the neon lights and great views. Open up the secret area for a larger area to ride around in.

9) Cruise Ship (Secret Level) - Check out all of the women in their bikinis and impress them with your skills. Maybe you'll even get lucky and get to ride your own boat with them.

All of them levels are the ones that you will come across in the Career Mode, if you choose to play Free Skate or a Single Session, then you can load one of the extra pre-made levels, or ride your own previously made level that you created.
In the skate-park editor, you can create you skate park from a selection of themes. You can choose areas like: schools, cities and the country. There are a wide variety of objects that you can place in your skatepark, from grind rails to plant pots.

Secret Levels:
The Warehouse Level from THPS1- This level is set in a warehouse from the original Tony Hawk game,
Burnside Skate Park from THPS1- This is a famous skatepark from Philly, PA from the original Tony Hawk game,
Roswell level from THPS1- The famous home of all the alien sightings from the original Tony Hawk game.

You can also create your own skater that you can use in all of the different game modes. You can create both males and females, and you can dress them in whatever you want. You can make their face to look like whoever you want, or maybe you want to create your very own wacky character. You can give them whatever clothes you like, from jeans and a t-shirt, to spandex shorts and a clown mask!

The graphics in this game are far better than the first 2 Tony Hawk games, and are generally great graphics even by the even more modern standards. All of the skaters, boards, and levels, all look really realistic. So realistic in fact, that when I was playing it before my mum just saw the TV and asked me what film I was watching!

The music soundtrack is one of my favourite parts of the game. It features all my favourite bands like AFI, Guttermouth, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Alien Ant Farm, Bodyjar, Mad Capsule Markets and a load more! As for the hip-hop, you've got people like Del the Funky, Nextmen, Redman, Xzibit and a few more. I'm not a great fan of rap and hip-hop music, but I can tolerate it as I have gotten used to it while playing the game, and actually fits quite well to the game. If you don't want to listen to music then turn it off and listen to relaxing sound effects.

The skateboarders that feature in the game are, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Eric Koston, Bucky Lasek, Bam Margera, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Elissa Steamer and Jamie Thomas.
As you can see there are a load of pre-installed characters to chose from, so building your own isn't necessary but it can be fun to experiment.
You can unlock lots of secret skaters. These are: Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1, Wolverine from X-Men, Officer Dick from THPS 1 and 2, Private Carrea THPS1 and 2, Ollie the Magic Bum from the Venice Level in THPS2, Kelly Slater from Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, and Demoness from Hell Neversoft Eyeball from the Neversoft intro Movie. These can be unlocked by achieving certain things in the game, like finding all the gaps in the game etc.

There are videos of all of the skaters in the game, there are videos of bails (falls), and videos the Neversoft team (the games developers) messing around and skating which can be a laugh to watch, they are a crazy bunch.

The contests in career mode are competitions that you compete in with 9 fellow skaters, and you have to get in the top three at the end of the competition to get a medal (gold, silver or bronze). Unless you get a medal, you can't move on to the nest level.

The case that the game comes in is a basic Gamecube case, like a DVD case, and inside the case is the usual memory card holder to, well… hold your memory card.
The instruction booklet that comes with the game in the case, tell you everything you need to know about the game. It tells you the controls, information about the levels and characters. It tells you how to build your own skatepark, and how to create your own skater. At the back are the credits for the game, and the music credits with info about the bands and their album that contains the song in the game. At the very back are customer support, and the product license agreement.

The Lifespan is excellent, now I am quite a die hard fan of these games so I completed the basic game in about 2 or 3 weeks, but that was just the basic stuff. It took me a few further weeks to unlock all of the extra skaters, videos and levels. I only discovered a few of the extra skate gear recently! I still love playing it, and find it great fun!

I recommend this game to everyone, even if you aren't a skateboard fan, but it's even better if you are obviously. My rating- 10/10

Cheers for reading!