Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Reviewed by Dogg
To say the truth, the Tony Hawk series has always
lacked that special something to make it successful,
on the Game Boy handheld. While Tony's console
counterparts are privileged with success, more so
with showers of glory, pride, and superiority,
however, we have already seen several times that Tony
was not and perhaps never meant for the impeccable
small system. On the Game Boy Color these games stunk, and the
dignified stereotypes that brought out THPS2 for the launching
Game Boy Advance also had failed. While many claim
that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on the Game Boy Advance
was good, however, no one ever seems to take down the
time to notice how utterly bad (keyword: bad) it was.
Glitches everywhere, control problems too frequent,
guess it is all in the life of the ineptitude crazy-man Tony Hawk.
However, a sequel to that 'bad' game was soon
announced. Appropriately called Tony Hawk's Pro
Skater 3, this game featuring Tony Hawk and his
corrupt skateboarding friends actually fixes up the
many problems found in the past game, however, that
is nowhere to say it is perfect. While to all due
respect, this series is to put simply, really
popular, but I just wish that they best keep it away
from the Game Boy Advance.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for the Game Boy Advance
mostly utilizes most of the same gameplay elements as
the past game. However, this time there are a few
differences that should be known about. Not really
big differences, but rather subtle ones that need no
mention, but I'll mention the more important ones so
I can impress the coeds who read this review now, or
sometime in the distant future. The new features
include an amalgamated create a player mode and some
more revamped features of multi-player and
single-player modes are featured. Also new moves have
been added, as well as new skate parks. Nothing big, however,
since half the time your love and hate for this game will all be
part of how fast you learn how this game plays and how, most
importantly, to finally pass single-player mode with
just one of the long list of characters you have.
The featured pro skaters in this game includes a
bunch of late teenagers and guys who get big bucks to
be up in a piece of wood. Anyway here is the list of
the predetermined counterbalanced skaters: Tony Hawk,
Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Eric
Koston, Bucky Lasek, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska,
Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer, Jamie
Thomas, and Bam Margera (you know, that Jackass).
Each skater is different in his or her very own ways.
Each skater has a different style that must be
accustomed to, and also each skater has a different
set of maneuvers that can either increase or decrease
the value of their presence in the game.
There are six levels in this game; but one more can
be unlocked and further played. The six levels
include the Foundry level, Suburbia, Rio, the Airport
Ð my favorite level, Los Angeles, and the final level
proportionally called 'Tokyo.' Each level is
different in size and in objectives that must be
done. All the levels, expect for Rio and Tokyo, have
you hitting pedestrians while frenetically busting
your demeaning ass with the zany and rather clichŽ
objectives. Objectives include rather stupid, to
rather, as mentioned, crazy stuff. Some force you to
collect letters that eventually make up the word
'SKATE', while others have you jumping buildings from
buildings just trying to get a secret tape. Some of
the objectives will even allow you to interact with
the fellow pedestrians roaming in that area Ð
including coppers, hobos, grillers, and the ever
avenging 'Thin Man.' As you do more and more
objectives you will start to progress to the later
levels, and soon to the tourneys, where Rio and Tokyo
disturbingly take place. In the tourneys you
basically just try your best to avoid falling down
and by combusting up a nice score.
In levels you will also be able to find special items
to boost your stats, or your piece of wood, which you
call a skateboard. Stuff like stats will be able to
boost the way your character's performance will be
while the insipid deck figures will give you yet
another tapestry in the long-line of selecting which
skateboard you want to ride.
The biggest thing to be revealed in this game,
however, is the new revert maneuver. A revert is a
quick 180 degree turn that once linked with other
combos will be able to rack up your score to
extraordinary new heights. Much like the manual in
the last game, the revert is one of the biggest
additions added in this game, however, one thing kept
killing this move, and the game even and that isÉ
It's steep learning curve. Constantly I would bail on
my killer trick just because my pace or my movement
caused me to lose my balance or fall of a ramp. And
this will happen constantlyÉ only rendering the fact
that this game is nearly unplayable Ð more so with
its aseptic isometric perspective which leads to more
trouble. However, my pain was soon finished when I
lowered the difficulty, but still I wanted to be
enthralled into an awesome game, not a game that
takes me over twenty hours to learn and then I simply
discover that what I've been doing was all a complete waste.
The Game Boy Advance's dark screen also limits the
way you will be looking at your environment. Let's
say you are going up an uphill ramp. Then you get
ready to push the buttons to activate the specific
trick. Unfortunately, your small character replica
would be hard to see and by the time you actually see
yourself high in the air, you will soon fall down
making you very dissatisfied with this game. Sure you
eventually learn how to keep up with the pace of the
game, but isn't the insatiable question that you
already should learn how to play and keep up with the
game all the way from the beginning? I mean come on,
the peeps over at Vicarious Visions had a great idea
coming up with this game, but arguably these guys are
constantly ruining that idea.
Where people, however, will really find the true
essence of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 will be with its
multi-player modes. Tony Hawk 3 features four
different types of multi-player modes. These four
modes include: Horse, Tag, King of the Hill, and
Trick Attack. In Horse you basically just do tricks
and then the game will evaluate who had the best
scoring trick. It's fair game, and could be played
simultaneously by four players. The second mode, Tag,
has you trying to skate your character away from the
character who is 'it.' The third mode, King of the
Hill, is relatively close to how Tag mode plays,
except here you must hit the skater who is king and
snuff away his crown. The last mode, Trick Attack, is
my favorite one and here you basically have to score
more points than the other skaters. Really fun stuff,
if you can get past the game's horrid controls.
The graphics are also something that are worth
looking at. Polished characters, revamped and
beautifully remade backgrounds, and good portions of
gashing blood flowing down a skater's popped up veins
are all sights that should impress those who have the
Game Boy Advance system. The graphics are to put in
one word: beautiful. The audio is also well composed
and well brought up. Featuring small rhythmic guitar
tunes and menu sounds straight out of the console
version, this game impresses as far as quality goes,
just don't expect anything big (like a Papa Roach
song being played in the background).
But quality won't make up for the game's bothersome
flaws. If one can get acquainted with the game's
controls and the incommodious perspective, then thank
them. But for me, I found a hard time playing
this game, but for some reason the multi-player modes
kept bringing me back from the troublesome single
player mode. I finally felt like I was getting the
beat of this game by playing the multi-player modes
and by constantly being impressed by the sheer amount
of quality in this game. If only more work could have
been done on the game's engine, then I am sure that I
would have liked this game better, and maybe have
given the game a higher score. Who knows?
Overall: 7 out of 10