'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3' Review

Before I forget: Happy 20th Anniversary Playstation!
Twenty years. Wow.

Ah, the Tony Hawk series. I think most people would agree that this fantastic series was treated very unfairly at the end of its life. Damn you, Ride!

THPS3 is a great representation of this series in its prime. Released in 2001, this game was available on basically every system out there. It was developed for every next gen console: Gamecube, Xbox and PS2. But also the PS1! And the Gameboy Color! And the Gameboy Advance!  And the N64! And the PC! And the Mac! Holy shit. Is that some kind of record? That has to be some kind of record. And almost every version was developed by a different game company, so each version has drastic differences in level design and the features available. Crazy.

The versions that I'm most familiar with are the PS1 and PS2. Obviously the PS1 version got a little jipped, the PS2 version is better in every possible way. Bigger levels, more features, more songs, more characters, more everything. But I still feel the PS1 version holds its own as a great game.

The first thing I have to address about these games is the main thing that always sticks with me: the music. The Tony Hawk series has introduced me to so many good bands, the number is uncountable. THPS3 has AFI, Adolescents, Motorhead, CKY, Chili Peppers, Ramones, Rollins Band. Seriously good punk, metal and rap. Playing these games on mute just wouldn't be half as good, in my opinion.

Career mode is really fun and quite challenging at times. Two player games and free skate are great. The level builder consumed many hours of my life as a kid. A few times in the ps1 version, I've run into this great glitch where I'm midair doing a trick on a ramp and I get stick inside of a wall. The game registers me as still being in the air doing the trick so you can just sit there and do an infinite amount of tricks and your score will soon be in the 100,000 range. The only problem is landing the trick. I haven't figured out how to get unstuck from the wall so I can never get all of those points that are adding up!

I feel like the airport level just needs an honorable mention for being one of the best levels in a THPS game. So many hours spent there. Obviously, I can't forget to mention the secret characters like Darth Maul and Wolverine. I thought having Spiderman in THPS2 was the greatest but this one really went to the next level. Darth Maul's subtle force abilities like levitating his board and force choking over NPC's is just spot on. Who doesn't want to skate around as Darth Maul? Who?

This series had a huge impact on kids of the late 90's/early 00's. If you go to Youtube and listen to any song that was featured in any THPS game, I guarantee there will be legions of comments sayings things like TONY HAWK 4 LIFE!
I'm always going to associate these songs with the THPS franchise and it's a huge bummer how this series' ended in such a bizarre and abrupt fashion. Who would complain about new Tony Hawk games that played like the classic ones? Come on, Activision! Get on it!

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - 8.7/10
 

Seriously, though. Activision. Someone. Make more.