Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 3

by Neversoft Entertainment

Product Features

• Skateboard Gaming
• Tony Hawk

Product Details

• ASIN: B00005QSLC
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,838 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 lets players once again ride as the legendary Tony Hawk or one of 12 other top pros. Building on the franchise's intuitive control scheme, the game lets players perform hundreds of tricks and combos in some of the world's most popular skate locations, including Los Angeles, Canada, and Tokyo. Players navigate through eight obstacle-filled levels that include intelligent traffic and pedestrians. The game's all-new goals and rewards system offer hours of challenges. In addition to riding as one of the greatest pro skaters ever, players can also create their own custom characters with the game's robust Create-a-Skater feature. Choosing from hundreds of options, players can customize the look of each character by choosing height, weight, skin tones, accessories, and tattoos.

Product Description

The first of the series built specifically for next-gen consoles, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 delivers realistic, cutting edge graphics, action-packed gameplay, seamless video cinematic sequences and crisp special effects. The game extends beyond the boundaries of the traditional skateboarding genre by setting players in living environments that evolve. Players can choose to skate through realistic urban settings complete with pedestrians, cars, traffic accidents, natural disasters and changing weather conditions.

Players go high flying through some of the hottest skating locales in the world including Skater?s Island in Middleton, Rhode Island, Rio, Los Angeles, Canada, Tokyo and Paris. Fluid animations let gamers pull off hundreds of combo moves and tricks including nollies, manuals and lip tricks using the franchise's signature solid control scheme.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tony Hawk Skates The Cube, November 27, 2001

By 

C. J. Clifford (Falmouth, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 3 (Video Game)

Typically, I'm not a big fan of sports, or sports video games for that matter, and prefer my games to have some kind of story plot going on (I am a writer of fiction after all), but there's just something about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. I never played the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but did attempt to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Playstation and subsequently got my butt creamed by my sister and her boyfriend (we played to see who could score the most points in Single Session play). I didn't really care for Tony Hawk 2, but with a lack of launch games available during the Nintendo Gamecube's release, I was willing to give Tony Hawk another try. Strangely enough, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is now one of my favorite games.

The one thing that made Tony Hawk 3 more enjoyable for me was without a doubt the Gamecube controller's setup. Shortly after I purchased my Gamecube and Tony Hawk 3, my sister's boyfriend purchased the same game, but for Playstation. On the Gamecube version, I was kicking some serious butt and had almost unlocked all the regular levels. I believed I could beat my sister in getting a high score in single session play. I lost! What made the difference? The controller friends, the controller.

It wasn't so much that I was unfamiliar with the Playstation controller set-up, it's pretty standard in button layout, but the odd placement and design of the Gamecube controller's buttons made playing Tony Hawk ten times easier. The Gamecube's controller may look a little weird, but it works quite effectively. In fact, it's so much better I refuse to play Tony Hawk on the original Playstation. Really, that's how much difference controller setup can mean to games, but this review isn't about the controller, its about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

As for the game itself, Tony Hawk 3 features twelve different pro skaters including, you guessed it, Tony Hawk, and a create-a-skate option to craft a skater of your own design to take you through the vast and complex skate arenas which await you. The create-a-skater option allows you to make your own skater from their sex, weight, height, clothes, tattoos, hair color, skin tone, and skate board. Unfortunately, people in the game don't look quite as realistic as the arenas the gamer has them skate in, but the create-a-skater option is a nice feature.

Graphically, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for Gamecube, which is identical on the Playstation 2, makes the first three Tony Hawk games on the original Playstation look ridiculously old fashioned and outdated. A lot of hard work must have went into this game to give it the level of realism it is able to pull off. The skate areas in Tony Hawk 3 are superb and achieve detail close to that of Star Wars: Rogue Leader -Rogue Squadron 2. As I said before though, the people in the game could have looked a little better.

Speaking of the skate areas, they are huge. Each level is a massive skate arena with plenty of rails to grind and ramps to hurtle you in the air to perform various tricks. Tony Hawk 3 isn't all about tricks though, there are multiple goals to be performed in these massive skate areas. Attaining certain (and sometimes ridiculously high) scores, collecting the letters of the word skate, and, the hardest task of all for each level, obtaining the secret tape, as well as level specific goals, gives Tony Hawk 3 a lot of replay value. Of course, there are some levels where tricks are everything with no specific goals to meet. Three levels in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 are skate contests, in which you have to wow virtual judges with your awesome tricks, wicked grinds, and ability to avoid slamming your face into a wall.

There are a variety of tricks to be performed in Tony Hawk 3, and knowledge of specific button combinations isn't actually required. All you really need to know is the basic function of each button, head toward a ramp, and launch your skater into the air. From there you just move your control stick a specific direction at the same time you press the B or X-button and see what happens. Just be sure to hold the A-button and straighten your skater out before you hit bottom or you'll beef it big time.

The sounds in the game are pretty admirable, but nothing to get too excited about. Other skaters will taunt you, bystanders will yell at you, and an announcer at the Airline level may give you a chuckle with his quips. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 also features a variety of music from different artists so things don't get too repetitive during your skate sessions. Nothing's worse than listening to the same exact sound track over and over again while playing a game.

The verdict: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is without a doubt an excellent game that's tons of fun for all and challenging enough to keep gamers coming back for more. If pure fun or a hearty challenge (or both for that matter) is what your all about when it comes to games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is definitely for you (and I personally recommend the Gamecube version, for which I'm writing this review, because the Cube's controller will deliver a much more enjoyable experience). On the other hand, if you prefer your games to contain some sort of overall story, look elsewhere because, like most sports game, you ain't going to find that here.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Game!, October 22, 2001

By 

Wiley (n.y) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 3 (Video Game)

I played this game for the ps2 and it was great!I have heard that it will be the exact same thing on the Gamecube.The levels are huge and it is harder than the first two.In the career mode the goals are different for each charactar.This game is much better than x-games skateboarding,TRUST ME!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous addition to the Tony Hawk franchise, May 13, 2002

By 

Patrick L. Randall (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 3 (Video Game)

Not being a fan of extreme sports, I did not think I would enjoy the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. However, a friend of mine got me hooked on Tony Hawk 2 for the Playstation and I was surprised at how much I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, once I got my GameCube, Tony Hawk 3 was the second game I bought (after Rogue Leader, obviously!!). I can say, unequivocally, that THPS 3 far surpasses its predecessors. Not only are levels and gameplay more appealing rewardingly challening, this game also benefits tremendously from being on the GameCube platform. I have played this game on PS2, as well, and it is a great deal more frustrating. The key to what makes the GameCube version of THPS 3 so much better is how it takes advantage of the asymmetrical control pad. Unlike the Playstation systems, GameCube's control buttons are set up in a manner where you do not need to be nearly as conscious of the buttons you are pressing, thereby freeing the player to focus more on what is happening on the screen (thus being more effective). The buttons on the GameCube control have different sizes, shapes and placements on the pad which allows the player to know which button does which simply by feel, as opposed to the Playstation buttons which are all the same except for the design on each of them (forcing the player to be conscious of what buttons he or she is pressing). Control issues aside, though, this game is fabulous. It's just challenging enough without being frustrating. I was personally able to accomplish 49 out of the 54 goals and got silver medals on the three competition levels before I had to resort to the cheats. Games like this (along with Rogue Leader), in my estimation, give GameCube the early leg up in the Next Generation system wars with X-Box and PS2.