Introduction

If it ain’t broke, leave it alone, dumbass. Well, that isn’t the exact saying, but I think Neversoft would approve. Keeping much of the tried-and-true formula, and adding brand spanking new features, the third incarnation of the Tony Hawk series takes advantage of the next-gen hardware in ways Neversoft could have only dreamt of during THPS2’s development, and after months of waiting, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 has finally made its way to Xbox. Read on to see if the Xbox version was worth the wait, and how it stacks up to the PS2 and GC versions.

Presentation

Cycling through menus and options is actually a bit harder than in previous games, but not unavigable by any means. You’ll get used to it rather quickly. The only thing that tweaks me is the music options. For whatever reason, you can’t cycle backwards through songs, but at least you can now turn off songs you do not like, play them in random order, and because of the Xbox’s HDD, play your own custom soundtrack.

The controls are the same as they have always been, so there is minimal adjusting in THPS3. There are a few additions to the control scheme, for example, you can now pull off single-move combos, such as triple kick-flips, just by pressing the button several times during the initial kickflip (hold left, hit X three times, to be exact). There is also the new revert function, which lets you link up vert tricks along with street tricks.

The downside of the controls though, is the contoller itself. Personally, I don’t have any problem with it; I had to play THPS2 on Dreamcast, for Christ’s sake, so I shouldn’t, but those of you weened on the PS2 pad, or didn’t pick up THPS2x, getting used to the Xbox controller’s size and layout could take a bit of time.

Graphics & Sound

One question: Why the HELL does THPS2x look better than THSP3? Other than character and object models, THPS2x actually looks better than THPS3. Volumetric grass (and hair, for the custom-skater setting for spiky hair), excellent backdrops with nice sun effects, and 2x may actually be a bit smoother than 3. But, to give THPS3 more credit, the levels in general are larger, and have a lot more movement, and from cars to pedestrians to the characters themselves, detail has been upped quite a bit from THPS2x to 3, so all of this, in a way, make up for it looking a tad worse than 2x.

The graphics have also been slightly updated from the GC and PS2 versions of THPS3. Overall a bit smoother, thats it really, and no slowdown at all, except right at the beginning of some levels when the first song begins to play.

The soundtrack is much larger, with a bigger, better range in music. Instead of the rap/punk feeling THPS2’s soundtrack had, there is more variety in rappers, and rockers alike. Del the Funky Homosapien, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Guttermouth, Alien Ant Farm, a huge range. But, I hate the soundtrack, actually. The only thinkg I like on it really is the CKY ’96 song. Well, like I said above, I can turn off every song I hate, or, do what I am doing now, replace the THPS3 soundtrack with that of anything I want.

The sound effects are as good as ever, even better now in fact. Female skaters now have a more variation in the grunts and sounds of pain when bailing. Pedestrians hackle and jeer when you bail, and often command you to "bust something out" when you skate by, or to watch where you’re going if you wiz by just inches from them, if not knocking them flat on their backs. And if you’re unlucky, they’ll turn the tables and knock you down instead, with cringe-worthy bail sounds and trash-talking afterwards.

Gameplay

Fortunatly enough, missions vary more than ever now. Get a Canadian hoser unstuck from a metal pole, help some creepy thin guy get into his house, knock the foreman into the pool, impress the Neversoft girls on a cruise ship; these are just a few examples of challenges that you haven’t encountered anything like in previous Tony Hawk games. Of course, the good ol’ "Collect S-K-A-T-E" and "Find the Hidden Tape" missions are still there as well as some other challenges we’re used to seeing in THPS titles, assuring you that this game is trying to branch out a little, but not too far.

Now onto the bad things. "What? Bad things about THPS3?" Yup, you heard me. Level design leaves a bit to be desired, with skateparks being smaller than I had expected, except for a couple of exemptions, and are also somewhat uninspired. The Oil Rig level doesn’t even take full advantage of the Xbox hardware, neither does the park builder. You could make parks much larger than 30x30 in THPS2x, why not in THPS3? And only three themes? I’m assuming Neversoft rushed when this game was in development to get it out the door, and you can tell.

Okay, now, back to the positives. Thats right, I wasn’t even close to being done. Create-a-skater is leaps and bounds over the previous versions. Glasses, hats, watches, bracelets, socks, shoes, shirts, pants, hair, faces, skin color, everything can be customized. The female create-a-skater has been much improved over the half-assed version found in THPS2x; The women are just as customizable as the men this time around. The custom faces are unexplicable ugly for the most part, yet again. I know, kind of shallow, but if you are going to make your own skater, you don’t want them all looking like horses, do you? More time needs to be spent into the faces overall, actually. Mean people, nice people, beauty queens, drag queens, it would be awesome to be able to make all kinds of faces for your skater. Well, there’s always THPS4...

Along with all the new flatland, grind, vert, hidden combos, and special tricks that should grab you by the short-and-curlies and make you wonder if they are even possible, there is also the new revert manuver, which is a Godsend. Remember how you could easily get 20,000, 30,000, maybe even 40,000+ points easily in one vert trick in previous TH games? Nuh-uh, no more buddy boy. But don’t fret, you can link up vert tricks and street tricks into mind-busting combos, and with mastering of both the revert and manual, you’ll be able to rack-up more points than ever before. To quote Gaylord Focker, "Can you deal with that?!"

Lasting Appeal

The biggest negative to this game that I have encountered is that the series just is not as addictive anymore. If it weren’t for all the unlockables, I would not see me playing this game for any more than a month or so. But the unlockables *are* there, and all those secrets will surely enance the game’s fun-factor, and take some time to open up, so you’ll be playing this game for a while.

Conclusion

Some ups, some downs, but a lot more ups. On some levels, THPS3 may disappoint you a bit, but you’ll be too busy trying to figure out where to buy some Depends and a mini-fridge so you never have to leave the couch.

If you have THPS3 on GC or PS2, the one new level, skater, and 4 player LAN are not worth spending another $50. If you don’t have THPS3 and don’t plan on utilizing the online mode for it on PS2, however, the well-handled Xbox port is quite arguable the best one.