Tony Hawks 3.....last one this time? no? OK then! (Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 (GC))

Member Name: martial_loh

Product:	Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 (GC)
Date:	22/12/01 (529 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its Tony Hawk - that means its good!

Disadvantages: Maybe a little short, in terms of arenas..

I'm generally an open minded gamer. I've played many types of games, but when the x-treme sports genre started to blossom, i was fairly skeptical. The various snowboarding and dirt-bike games were quite atrocious. But then came along Tony Hawk on the Playstation.....a joy to play! I'd never played a sports game quite like it!
If you hadn't guessed already, Tony Hawks 3 is the third instalment of the skating-hero's video game title.
First off, the graphics look waaay better than the first two games... everything has that PS2 anti-aliased look about it - nice and smooth! The speed at which the game moves at is so fast, that it will take you several days to notice the nice little tweaks that the developers added in (mostly small animations that do add to the overall experience - trust me!!). The skaters look like the guys (and gals) who they are meant to be, although I'm not quite sure if they sound like their real-life counterparts...
The sceneries look fantastic - especially the town scenes, where there are cars and buses speeding across the road always on the ready to knock you down! The variations in the levels is very nice - from a factory to a cruise liner, it is obvious that Neversoft have put a lot of thought into the designs of the game. - there's even the park creator which allows you to make your own custom skate parks - quite fun, but too much effort is required in my opinion!!

The sound is good, with quality bands like Alien Ant Farm providing some of the background music. It might not be to everyone's taste, but for some strange reason, the music always sticks in your head!!! The bone-crunching sound effects do give the impression of extreme pain - especially when accompanied by the nicely rendered blood sprays!!

The game play is very simple - you ride around various arenas, completing different tasks (collect this, grind this, push this, etc.). Once you've done the tasks, you unlock new
skaters, board designs and skateparks.
Each skatepark has some sort of secret area hidden away in them, its just a matter of sitting down and playing the game! The multiplayer modes are very entertaining (although arguments will tend to break out!!)... Errrmm.......bad points.....game too short? I know it has LOADS of secrets, but between myself and 2 friends, we managed to unlock all the arenas and fully power up a skater within 3 weeks (not to mention unlocking several new characters)...I'd have preferred a few more arenas rather than the pointless characters!!
Oh well, aside from that small discrepancy, this game is a worthy addition to your PS2 collection....buy it..now...even if you have the previous Tony Hawk titles!! May there be many more Tony Hawk games, since each one is such a great improvement over the last!!

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