|
By Justin Crowley on November 4th, 2001
Introduction In the world of gaming there are essentially two types of games. There are games that are the innovators and there are the multitude of games that inevitably try to leech off the success of the innovative ones. A few notable innovative games come to mind. Games like Resident Evil, Mario 64, Final Fantasy, and Metal Gear to name a few. All of these games have spawned countless clones that have failed to reach the greatness of which the games that inspired them have. One such innovative game (and the subsequent subject of this review) has spawned more horrible clones over the past two years than any other game listed above. The game of which I speak is none other than Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.
Presentation The game is presented via a
The skateshop approach is very nice in comparison to the menu system of past Tony games. It is nice looking and easy to navigate. Graphics & Sound Remember how great we all thought THPS2 looked on our now dead Dreamcasts? Well THPS3 ellipses it’s predecessors in every way. For the first time Tony Hawk is running in a full 60 FPS glory. The landscape detail is incredible everything from the steam billowing out of the foundary to the landscape rattling earthquake debris looks incredible. Hats off to the guys at Neversoft for doing such a great job. A great soundtrack has always been a staple of the Tony Hawk games and this one is no exception. Although it is not quite as good as the soundtrack from the first game (which is in my opinion the best use of a licensed soundtrack ever to grace a game) the songs are varied enough so that there’s something for everyone here. Songs range from artists like the more popular Alien Ant Farm and Xzibit to underground punk favorites like Guttermouth and A.F.I. The game also gives you the option of rearranging the playlist based on personal preference so you can turn off the songs you don’t like and turn up the songs that you can rock out to. Most of the sound effects are lifted from THPS2, which isn’t a bad thing because they’re all top notch. Everything from rail sliding to just skating around sounds dead on. The developers DID add quite a few new sound effects like the grating laughter of the crowd as you bail in a competition. And on the opposite end of the spectrum the cheers as you nail a big trick.
My main problem with the sound effects is the annoying voice the guys at Neversoft decided to give the guy that takes your picture in some of the levels. Whoever thought that finding the most stereotypical nerdish white guy voice and making him say hackneyed teen buzzwords and phrases like “Hey Tony let’s see you get some phat air” isn’t gaining and credibility points in my book.
Gameplay It would seem that Neversoft completely retooled the carreer mode taking what made the one in THPS2 great and removing the needless annoying things cough cash system cough. Each level has 10 goals. There are the familiar high score challenges and the S-K-A-T-E challenge to complete then there are 6 level specific challenges. For instance in the Los Angeles level you must grind down 4 designated rails to trigger a landscape altering earthquake which opens up the path to reach the secret tape. It would appear that the developers have made the competitions a bit harder this time around. In order to place first you will need to go bigger, bail less, and move around the park more. There are three competition levels and in each I was only able to get a bronze medal on my first attempt as opposed to the golds I got on the competition stages from the first two games. Also scattered throughout the levels in the career mode are five stat coins. These coins can be traded in for upgrades to your overall stats including speed, ollie, rail balance, hangtime, and several other categories. While most are easily attainable there are a few that you will have to go back for after you have upgraded your stats a bit.
The levels themselves, while far ahead than pretty much any other extreme game out there aren’t as well thought out as those in THPS2. Also some of the levels are quite small (Rio comes to mind) although the fact that a lot of the levels are also multi tiered makes up for this. As for new features the game boasts a “revert” trick. By pressing R2 or L2 right before landing on a quarter pipe you can pull off a trick that much like a manual will allow you to continue on linking more tricks and getting bigger scores. Although not quite as useful as the manual it is still a noteworthy addition.
Lasting Appeal As far as lasting appeal goes THPS3 packs several multiplayer modes and gasp an online network mode where you and three pals can skate it out in a battle for skatepark supremacy.
Both multiplayer and network modes have a variety of game styles ranging from the classic game of H-O-R-S-E, to trick attack where the player with the highest scores wins, to graffiti mode where you must trick off of as many objects as possible while stealing your opponents tagged objects by performing tricks off of them with higher point totals. Although I have played multiplayer mode with a friend I have yet to try out the network play, but from what I am hearing it is very enjoyable and for the most part lag free. THPS3 also comes packed with a park editor and a skater editor. Both offer a moderate amount of features and are a nice added bonus to an all around solid game.
Conclusion Although I wouldn’t call THPS3 as innovative as THPS2 it is still far and away the best skateboarding game available on the Playstation 2 and it will probably remain the end all be all skating game for PS2 until well… THPS4 comes out. With that said this is a really great game and with the inclusion of the network play (a first for a PS2 game) I would expect to spend a lot of time with this one. | 
