Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001)

Genre: Sport  |  Players: 1-2  / Up to 4 online (PS2 only)  |  Developer: Neversoft

I won't bore anyone reading this with the tragic tale of where my first PS2 console went, a reliable as hell OG Phat version, but some years ago I bought a Slim version from eBay primarily for one reason: to play THPS 3 again.

THPS 1 and 2 on the original PlayStation console were both fun games, but sometimes even the simplest action was more difficult to do than it ought to have been, and the frame rate was inconsistent on the larger levels.

On the surface THPS 3 on PS2 doesn't do much radically different from its predecessors, but to play it is to discover that Neversoft successfully honed the formula to near perfection - basically, everything except the tricky frame rate.

The new revert manoeuvre effectively balances gameplay for people who prefer ramps to street, enabling combos to be continued while tricking on vert. Do it successfully and you can even ease into a manual, hop off the vert and transition to the nearest street obstacle or rail for the best of both worlds with your score multiplier unbroken. Keep the balance meter from tipping over and you can chalk up massive scores. (Combine with gaps for even more impressive numbers.)

The character customisation isn't extensive but nor is it lacking too much: hats, hairstyles, glasses, tees, etc, can be unlocked and worn. Likewise, hardware: new decks, wheels, etc. None of it makes any difference to how your skater performs, but it's a nice touch, nonetheless.

Once you've kitted yourself out from the available options and chosen your preferred skating style (regular of goofy) it's onto career mode with your custom skater. There are only eight levels, which doesn't sound very much, but there are multiple goals to achieve within each one. If you only achieve one goal per run, save it and try for something else on subsequent runs; they carry over so you don't need to do them all in one try. It's the classic THPS formula. It works wonderfully, which makes it all the more frustrating that they messed with it so much thereafter.

Along the way you'll want to collect the spinning Stat Points that are scattered around each distinctive location, which allow you to increase your skill at various disciplines; e.g., balance for rails, more air for vert tricks, etc. Some of them will be out of reach the first time you encounter them, so keep a mental note of where they are and come back later. Max stats will allow for longer combos and more fluid transitions, which translates to more enjoyable gameplay.

With practice it's possible to blitz through the levels in one sitting. But there's incentive to replay each one with the Pro characters, provided you enjoy watching unlockable skate videos. If you're playing a skating game, then there's a good chance you're going to enjoy such things. Rodney Mullen's is mind-blowing. I strongly suspect he's an actual wizard, unbearded and in disguise.

If you get bored skating the same levels over and over, you can pop over to creator mode and make your own. There's a limit to how much you can put in a level, and it's a wise idea to keep it under the max to avoid slowdown, but it's intuitive and you can even name your gaps, which is a recipe for much hilarity if you can anticipate how a player might combo them together.

Sports games aren't a genre I play very much of — they simply don't appeal to me the same way a quality JRPG or well-made Sandbox game does — but I do enjoy a skating game, and from that perspective THPS 3 is the one that I love the most. Weirdly, one of the most enduring aspects is soundtrack related and even now, two decades after the first encounter, I can no longer hear Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' without thinking of the game's opening credits. The two things are forever wedded in my mind, even though I was a Motorhead fan long before THPS came out.

NOTE: the game originally released on PS1, PS2, GameCube, and GBC. The following year it was ported to other formats by various developers (including N64, Xbox, PC + Mac, and GBA). Obviously the GBC and GBA versions will be radically different to the other versions, but consider anything written above this note to apply ONLY to PS2, PC and Xbox (because while the GC version looks prettier than the PS2, it has major problems in other areas). And even though I mentioned it in the title, the console online component will be long dead.