Collection essentials #574 & #575: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (GC & Xbox)

For the third year in a row we’d get a new Tony Hawk game, and this is where most fans agree the series peaked. Tony Hawk 2 was a marked improvement over the first game and got practically universal acclaim from critics…and yet just a year later 3 came along and somehow managed to be EVEN BETTER. 

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you probably know that a lot of good video game sequels often deliver the same sort of thing as the previous game, but with more content and more polish. That’s certainly the case here. THPS3 certainly benefited from being developed for more powerful hardware, first releasing on the PlayStation 2. You can immediately see the improvement in the graphics and presentation. This game’s got more tricks, more skaters, better levels, and a better level creator as well.

There’s one major gameplay addition in THPS3 that really puts it over the top. The second game had introduced “manuals,” performing something akin to a wheelie, and these allowed you to link tricks together much more often than in the first game. But there were many cases where you could not transition into a manual: specifically, when you’re going up something like a quarterpipe and getting some air to do a trick for a couple seconds and then straight back down. Well, THPS3 fixes this by introducing the “revert.” When you’re coming back down in such a scenario, you can now perform a 180-degree turn upon landing and immediately transition that into a manual, meaning that practically any trick can now be strung together as part of a large combo!! This really makes a world of difference, and it’s incredibly fun to try and string together super long combos. 

There are some little differences between versions of this game. The original PS2 release had online play, something I never got to experience unfortunately. The Xbox release has an exclusive character and stage, and has better graphics, plus it’s compatible with the console’s “custom soundtracks” feature so you can play listening to your own music. While it lacks the PS2’s online play, I’d say Xbox wins on the whole. 

There’s really only one major complaint I have with THPS3, and that is…why are you restricted to only two players in local multiplayer?!? I really don’t understand why we couldn’t have had four, especially since THPS2x had it. That’s a fairly significant blight on what is otherwise a downright marvelous game. In the Xbox version you can play as more than 2 via “system link”, but that’s a huge pain in the butt since you need multiple Xboxes.

As for my personal experience, my cousins PJ and Eric got this game for their new PS2 back when it was new. I had already played the first two games at my other cousins’ place, so I was pretty excited to play the third game. And, wow, it sure didn’t disappoint! When I got the GameCube in 2002, THPS3 was a priority and one of the early games I got for it. That’s why the GameCube release is included in this post, as it’s the original copy that I owned in my youth. Otherwise, I’d have only showcased the Xbox version. I greatly enjoyed playing it with family members, and even my sister Abby who generally doesn’t play video games found herself digging THPS3 back then.

After this game, well…honestly, there wasn't really a whole lot of room for improvement. The next few Tony Hawk games changed things up in various ways, and are generally considered good games, but I think fans would agree that the original formula executed to perfection in THPS3 makes it the definite game. 

If you like video games in general, even if you’ve never given two thoughts to skateboarding, you really ought to give Tony Hawk at least a try, as seemingly everyone who does comes away liking it. And if you can only play one, make it 3. It’s seriously one of the best video games ever made, and an absolute quintessential essential in my collection.