Background Info
Activision and Tony Hawk combined to make what turned out to be the best skateboarding game ever in the spring of 2000. Ever since that first Tony Hawk Pro Skater (THPS) game, everyone who loves skateboarding has had something good to say about the game. Now the THPS series spans across three consoles, the PC, and the GameBoy Advance and virtual skateboarding has never been better off. THPS started its life on the original PlayStation, but since then has been hosted on just about every major gaming console, including the deceased Dreamcast. The combination of simple controls, detailed graphics, and gameplay depth equals one amazing gaming experience. With every year adding something new and upgrading some details, THPS seems to improve with every installment. THPS3 is no different, with improved graphics, added tricks, and new levels. THPS3 looks to carry on the legacy of the greatest skateboarding game to a new standard.

Presentation/Graphics : 89
Each level looks well detailed and sharp. Reflections, shadows, and detailed textures are used very well. I ran into a little clipping--which usually happens when you bail. The clipping does not cause you to crash but can be kind of annoying. The level of detail is pretty amazing and you'll even see a list of flight arrivals and departures displayed on a scrolling electronically sign. On another level you can see the house number paint on the curb in front of the corresponding house. Little things like that add a nice touch to the realism of THPS3. Player models look very detailed and with a, Create-A-Skater feature, you can add small details like watches, tattoos, and even scars! Your skateboard also looks great and is detailed as well. You can customize the design printed on the bottom of your board from a selection of several different name brands. You can also choose the design and color of your grip tape and the color of your wheels. The skater animation is pretty amazing as well. Every motion looks fluid and realistic. From doing a mid-air Holy Cross to “Bailing and rackin' your noggin against the side of a rail,” you can feel the action. Actually, when you bail your skater has this cool rag doll effect that might make some people a little squeamish. You can't help but notice the nice streak of red blood on the side of a ramp right after you bailed on it. The bloodstain also stains on the ramp during the duration of your run. There are some minor problems with the graphics, mainly used on the NPSC models and liquid. First, let's start with the liquid graphics. They look like a bit outdated and unrealistic. It's obvious that the time took to design your player and other worldly objects were not used for the liquid graphics in the game. Water looks like a flat texture graphic just laid across a surface. There is no sense of depth, reflections, or motion to try and even make it look a little real. The NPSC look just as bad. They all look very blocky and their faces can look a little blurry at times. You don't really notice the NPSC that much because you usually just fly by them and try to avoid them. Like I say, these are minor things but they still need to be addressed.

Presentation/Audio : 95
Can you say, wow? That is what you will say when you listen to THPS3. The audio is superb, to say the least. Let me break it down for you. The first thing you will notice when you start the game is the in-game sound tracks. There are 20 tracks for your listening pleasures that include popular bands such as: House of Pain, Alien Ant Farm, Redman, and many others. You can choose which songs that you want to listen to and in which order you want them to play. They all sound good and if you have a nice audio system on your computer, you can rock the house down. But that is just the frosting on the cake. Skating, grinding, and bailing have never sounded better. They all have a clear, realistic sound. From the first time you bail and hear the squishing sound of your face eating the pavement, it makes your gut wrench and say, Ouch! You can also hear other pedestrians scream and shout things like, "I bet you can't even do a flip-kick" or "That was real nice, now keep it going!" as you skate by. Sometimes it can be annoying when you hear the same phrase repeatedly, but you can do a flip-kick in their face that'll send them off running. But if the pedestrian comments get on your nerves, you can always adjust the volume of the sound effects and music to your liking.

Interface/Options : 85
There are plenty of options on THPS3 and they are all easily accessible and easy to use. When you first load the game you start off in the Skate shop. It looks like your typical skate shop filled with skateboard clothing gear and equipment. The shop is very detailed and items are displayed well. There is even a clerk pacing behind a glass counter patiently waiting for customers, but it would have been nice if someone actually walked in the shop ever once in a while. Your skater, whether it be created or one of the 13 pro skaters available in the game, will be standing in the shop holding his board, posing and moving around in place. From here you will see the main menu and all the different options available. There are four different types of ways to skate: Career, Single Session, Free Skate, and Network Play. You can also choose the Create-A-Skater, Park Editor, Tutorial, Options, or Quit from the main menu. As you can tell, there are a lot of options, and the menu is simple enough that you will not get lost or confused. So if you want to practice in Free Skate, or want to make the ultimate skate park, it's only a few clicks away. Talking about clicks, controlling you skater has never been easier. You can use either a keyboard or game pad, but I personally prefer the game pad. You also can customize all the actions, so once you find your right setup, you'll be pulling off super combos in no time. The response time for the keyboard and the game pad seem to be just about the same, very fast and very precise. One thing to watch out for is, if you press the flip-kick button three times while your in the air off a ramp, your character is going to try and perform a triple flip-kick. I found myself bailing more often than not because I accidentally press a button one too many times. It does take time to perform a move so if you do press an action button twice, your character will do the action twice. Which is nice is because you can link moves together a little easier because you are a few seconds ahead of your character. Once you learn to do that, you will be skateboarding like the great Tony Hawk himself.

Gameplay : 95
The Tony Hawk series has always excelled with its gameplay and tight control, and this installment is no different. Combos can be pulled off with precision and THPS3 has added new moves to help you link and create longer and more exciting combos. The most noticeable move is the Revert. The Revert is a move that you will use when you land from a ramp. Basically it is a 180-degrees switch, but the Revert is done a bit faster and you lose less speed than pressing the switch button. Also it is considered a move so you can now more easily link moves off a ramp to a manual or a grind. One of my longest combos incorporated the revert. I did a nice triple 180 flip-kick off of the ramp, landed into a revert, immediately went into a manual, and then ollied into a 50-50 grind. Then I did a flip-kick out of the grind, landed into a manual and then a switch while I was in the manual and topped it off with a 180 ollie. That's a 9 move combo! Then my little brother topped me with an 11 move combo and my fame to glory was over in one 2-minute run. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. As you can see through my experiences, you are rewarded with creativity and style. There are so many moves in THPS3 that it is hard not to be creative. There are eight different ways to do a flip-kick in your normal stance, and if you move both of your feet up towards the front of the board, which is called a Nollie, you can do eight more different flip-kicks. The same goes for grabs. There are also different types of manuals like front side, backside, and handstands! You can also pull of several types of rail grinds, lip tricks, and ollies. Plus with the addition of hidden combos that you can do off of ramps, you will have plenty of opportunity to rack up points and combos. You can even throw in a wall grind and car grinds into your run. Even better is the ability to edit all your tricks and pick and choose which type of trick you want to do. Like I said, you can only do eight different grip-kicks while you're in the game, but there are dozens of different types of flip-kicks as well as grabs and lip tricks to choose from. So you are probably wondering, where do you attempt to pull off all of these 11 trick combos at? Well, THPS3 has eight skate park locations from fantasy locations like the Foundry, to big cities like Los Angeles. The Foundry is the first level when you start the Career Mode, but as you advance you will have the opportunity to unlock new levels. Each level has it's own location and look and they are all very skateable. You will find that some are better for rails and linking moves for big combos while others are vert type parks where you can get crazy air and do some cool aerial combos. When you are deciding if you want to use a vert skater or a street skater, the choice is up to you. Both will do fine on each track, but a well-balanced skater is probably the ideal choice. Let's talk about the Career mode now because this is where you are going to spend most of your time in while playing solo. You start off your Career by either choosing a skater or creating a new one. THPS3 has a few RPG elements in it. For instance, your skater has several attributes like Air, Ollie, and Rail and you have a limited amount of points to distribute to all your attributes. Then as you play in Career mode, you will be rewarded with extra points by either grabbing the THPS3 floating logos scattered through the levels or by completing certain goals. After you choose your skater, it's time to start your career off in the Foundry. In the Foundry, just like most of the other locations, you have several goals that need to be accomplished to finish the level. You don't need to complete all the goals to move on to the next level, but if you highlight the next level it will tell you what is needed to unlock it. There are two types of levels, the goal-orientated levels and the competition levels. In the goal-orientated levels, there are some standard goals in each level as well as some unique ones. Some of the standard goals are colleting the letters S-K-A-T-E, finding the hidden tape (which they show you the location of the tape but not how to get there), and getting three types of scores; High, Pro, Sick (only the best apply for the Sick score!). The unique goals for each level usually consist of doing some kind of rail grind or finding a certain item, but they are very creative. For example, in the Foundry one of the goals is to drown the foreman. To do this, you must skate on a platform surrounded by rails where the foreman is standing and you must rail grind behind the foreman over the control panel to knock him into a huge water container. In the Canada level one of the goals is to get a kid named Chuck, unstuck. Have you ever seen the movie, The Christmas Story? Well, if not there is this scene where one kid double-dares another that to lick a telephone pole in the middle of winter and his tongue freezes to the pole. In the game, that's Chuck who has his tongue stuck to the telephone pole and you have to help him. The catch is that you are only allowed two minutes to complete all these tasks. As a result, you probably won't accomplish all the goals in one run. However, you can do as many runs as needed to accomplish the goals. Some goals, like getting the S-K-A-T-E letters, must all be collected in one run. The other types of levels are competition. The competitions do not have any goals, but instead you are competing against several other CPU skateboarders in freestyle competition. You are given three, one-minute runs where you must pull of as many tricks and combos as you can to rack up points. You are then rated by judges and given a score for each run. You lose points off your score for each bail, so try to keep it safe. You can bail and still do well though, as long as you don't make it a habit. After three runs, your top two scores are added together. To get a medal, you must finish in the top three spot. Unfortunately you cannot watch the CPU skaters perform their runs. You only get to see their finishing rating on a scorecard in-between your runs. It would have been nice if you could have the option to watch them, but I'm hoping we see this in THPS4.

Replay Value : 90
You will be playing THPS3 for a long time. Between trying to unlock all the levels, getting all the goals, and finding all the secret items like hidden combos or skateboard decks, there is plenty to do. But even when you get every possible item from Career mode, there is still Network Play. Network Play lets you play eight different games, like Capture the Flag and Graffiti. Each game is different so you have plenty to choose from. Also in Network Play you can use a park created from the Park Editor. That basically means THPS3 has an infinite amount of skate parks to choose from. There are plenty of objects to place in your park from dumpsters to loop-de-loops and every thing in between. There are also three starting settings to choose from: beach, school, or indoor. You can also decide what type of game will be played on your map and the starting position for each player. The editor is simple, but is detailed enough to make some awesome parks. There are also some pre-made parks in the park editor that will give the novice designer and idea on how to create their very own park. With all these options, you should have no problem staying busy until THPS4 comes out.

Overall : 91
THPS3 has brought a lot to the table with this new installment. There are new levels, tricks, graphics, and much more. If you liked THPS2, this is a must buy. But even if you have never played any of Tony Hawk's games, this is the one you should try out. There are some minor problems, but they do not affect your gaming experience. And even though the player models look very nice, the environments look a little dated and the player models sometimes look flat-out horrible. Like I said, these are minor things that do not affect your gameplay whatsoever. The controls are tight and the varieties of tricks are amazing. THPS3 hits the gameplay just right and makes this game just plain fun!