'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.

'3Xtreme' Review

Now this is an interesting game. I'm not going to lie, this is one of my favorite games in the world. I've loved it most of my life and it's very nostalgic for me. Unfortunately, no one likes this game. This poor thing has received such harsh critiques over time and I'd just like to say why I love it so damn much. It may not be incredibly revolutionary in gameplay or graphics or sound or really ANYTHING...but it's still fun as hell.

I was first introduced to this game when I was about eight. I went over to my friends house and played it with him all the time. Even back then, I don't remember being impressed by the graphics very much. The reason we loved it so much is because it was just FUN. I think fun factor wins out over any aspect of a video game. So let's talk about the title. 3Xtreme. What the hell does that even mean?! It's actually supposed to be Extreme 3, the third installment in the Extreme Games and Sports series. They decided to spell it like that because it was the 90's. Zany stuff.




I've never played the first game but I do have 2 Extreme (IT'S TOO EXTREME!!). It's a pretty good game, the graphics seem even better than 3Xtreme but I just don't enjoy it half as much. 2 Extreme focuses more on challenges in the course, time trails, things like that, whereas 3Xtreme is all about the exhibition races. Did I mention this game has EXTREMELY good music? Every course has its own signature song and every song is awesome. Lots of funky rhythms and electronics.



Dig that bass! Hearing these great songs start right before the race always got my heart pumping. One of the best (and funniest) features of the game is pressing any shoulder button and punching the contestant next to you. They always make a hilarious OOHHH!! sound when they get punched or hit a wall. The tricks you can pull off are absolutely ridiculous. If I get enough air I always just button mash and your character will do some crazy shit. Just hitting an arrow button up or down in midair will cause them to do a flip, left and right will get them spinning. My personal favorite character to play with is Sam Murabayashi. He's black and has a Japanese last name, what's cooler than that? Playing this game by yourself is fun and racing against your friends is even better. The tournament mode is really challenging but rewarding. Overall, the game is pretty short. I kept having problems with my ps1 memory cards last year when I really wanted to play the game, my files kept deleting themselves. I finally decided to sit down and play through the game in one sitting. There are many different courses and it's about 2 hours playtime altogether. Very short but very fun. After I finished the game, the final screen showed my character holding a trophy and it says CONGRATULATIONS XTREME CHAMPION!! Great moment for me.

Overall, this game is a classic in my eyes. On occasion, I'll still dig it out of my games and play it for some nostalgia. 3Xtreme may get some horrible reviews and scores among gamers but if you see this game at a used store (I guarantee it will be very cheap) I highly suggest giving it a chance. I recently bought a used copy for 99 cents and it plays great. You just have to remember to have an open mind when playing it. That graphics were terrible a decade ago, now they're REALLY terrible. This game definitely hasn't aged well but the overall fun I get out of it wins over anything.

3Xtreme - 7.5/10

'Street Fighter III - Third Strike' Review

So I've been an avid SF fan as far back as I can remember. For years I've wanted to play any of the SFIII games and I finally bought the SF anniversary collection on the PS2. This features every version of SFII and SFIII - Third Strike.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like III doesn't have much popularity among fighting games. Third Strike is definitely one of the best fighting games I've ever played, if not the best. I think one thing that might have turned people of from this game is the characters. They're all really, really weird. With the exception of II characters Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, and Akuma, this game has a very bizarre cast. There are 20 characters in this game, and with the exception of Urien, I think they're all amazing.

Side note: I just can't stand Urien. I don't mind his fighting style but he's just this...WTF? He walks out wearing a business suit and when battle commences he angrily tears it off revealing nothing but a bit of loin cloth. I just couldn't get into this guy.



There's Dudley, a complete badass gentleman boxer extraordinaire with an amazing British accent. Oro, some kind of old hermit, has completely yellow skin and ties one arm in his shirt to be fair so he doesn't kill his opponent. Sean, Ken's Brazilian apprentice who loves basketball. There are some strange humans that have been experimented on by the bad guys and now have stretchy limbs and can shapshift (Necro and Twelve). Elena is a Kenyan princess who has all kicking attacks. Yun and Yang are two brothers from Hong Kong who kick ass while rollerblading and skateboarding. Third Strike is full of really fun characters that you wouldn't see in normal fighting games.

Moving on, the first thing that I liked about this game right away was the music. Most of the soundtrack is composed of jazz/hip hop. How awesome is that? Seriously.


^ This song is played during the character select screen. It fits the game PERFECTLY.

The game graphics made for CPSIII hardware which was a step up from Alpha's CPSII graphics. All the animation is fluid and gorgeous. Third Strike offers interesting diversity in arcade mode, giving the player the option to choose who they fight each round out of two different characters. After three rounds in arcade mode, you get to play the classic mini game of beating up an car until it's junk. A few rounds later you play a mini game involving the character Sean tossing basketballs at you to be parried. With each character, you can choose one of three special attacks to use. You have a bar at the bottom of the screen and when that fills up you can do the combination and use your special.



One complaint I do have with this game is the final boss, Gill. Obviously, I don't want the final boss to be a walk in the park but Gill is a fucking BEAST. He uses fire and water based attacks and one of his special moves (this one is my favorite) is a full heal. Basically you're attacking him, sweating bullets, your fingers are numb, and somehow you manage to defeat him. YES!! I DID IT! Oh, wait...Gill gets back up of the ground you watch his health bar fill all the way back up. It's still round one. Then he kicks your ass. Nevertheless, I've been able to defeat Gill ONCE with Akuma. I don't know how I did it. Since then it's been all failures.

If you're big SF fan, you might already know that Super Street Fighter IV has been announced and three of the new characters are from SFIII! Those being Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto! YAY SFIII is being acknowledged! I'm guessing that in the future a SFIV Turbo will be made and hopefully they'll keep incorporating more III characters into the batch!

In a nutshell, this game is amazing. It was a complete surprise to me when I first played it and every now and then I pop it into the PS2 and go to town. I highly suggest it to anyone who enjoys fighting games. Or enjoys jazz/hip hop.

Street Fighter III - Third Strike gets 9/10.

"Let's fight...like gentlemen" - Dudley

I love dem video games!

So this blog is going to be reviews of video games. No particular genre or system or time period. Just whatever I happen to be into.

and if you enjoy comic books in any form, check out my other blog!

http://llewxam-comicreviews.blogspot.com/

SONIC BOOM!