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Preview  Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
- By Neal Gittens
To most, this game speaks for itself. It’s the latest installment of the now fabled Tony Hawk series. I’m almost positive that Arlo Guthrie by now has written folk songs about this series. However, if you’ve been under a rock or in someplace like Idaho for the past few years, I’ll try to fill you in as to what all the hoopla is about. (Note: If you are from Idaho please don’t send me nasty emails or tell the other internet-ready person in the state I said bad things about your wonderful, spacious, very, um… wonderfully spacious state) In the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, you take on the role of a, get this, pro skater. You grab your board and head out to various locales and perform tricks to tally high scores and accomplish certain objectives specific to each board. All of this leads to you grabbing cash, which allows you to open new levels, or buy new boards or tricks to use from that point onward.
The tricks basically consist of three major varieties: kick tricks, grab tricks, and grinds. The kick and grab tricks are performed while in the air, and can also be spun for increased point multipliers. Grinds are performed on rails or ledges. By linking tricks one after another in rapid succession you build up huge scores, which allow you other privileges. Namely, laughing in your friend or little brother’s face while making an appropriate motion involving the pelvic region (which in most circumstances would be considered inappropriate) and an inflammatory comment. Of course, when your score falls, you must endure the same, but that’s what video games are all about: sharing and caring.
The series continues with the same meat and potatoes that it has in its last two incarnations. Each board has a list of objectives to complete, and completing these objectives leads to cash, which leads to opening new levels to rock and roll on. Aside from these typical objective-based levels, there are boards which are competitions, in which the higher the score, the better your score on a scale of 1-100. Best two rounds out of three wins. These rounds are scored on a Gold, Silver, Bronze medal scale, and with a Bronze medal you can move to the next level.
Here’s a breakdown of some features found in the latest THPS:
12 skaters – Including staples of the series, such as Steve Caballero, Bucky Lasek, and the Hawkman himself. This series also adds Bam Margera, one of the dudes from MTV’s “Jackass”. (My personal favorite name ever is Rune Glifberg)
A soundtrack with tunes ranging from Motorhead to KRS-One: With punk to hip-hop to hard rocking tunes blaring behind your game, it is sure to please most any gamer. I personally love the band Zebrahead, whose song “Check” appears in the game.
A new trick type, the “revert” – This is a new trick that when performed on the landing of another trick allows the player to continue to combo into other moves. This seems a little fuzzy in its definition to me, but I’m not the sharpest tack ever. I’m sure it will be yet another intuitive feature added to an already stellar control scheme.
Enhanced graphics for the GC – The Nintendo GameCube version is reported to run smoother than the already released PS2 version, and with greater graphical quality. This game arrives a few short weeks after the PS2 version: A true testament (I think!)to the ease of development for the GC.
Split screen multiplayer – This is unfortunately the only multiplayer format found in the game. No online for the GC version.
Tony Hawk 3 is one of the most highly anticipated games for the early GameCube schedule, and the fact that it is reported for release at system launch makes it that much more exciting. If the title can fill the sizable shoes of its forefathers, it will be certain to remain one of the best selling franchises of recent years. The Tony Hawk franchise remains the standard by which extreme sports games are defined, and each release in the series has raised the bar that extra notch. When it is released, expect to hear a lot from this title, expect to hear a lot of talk about this game, and expect to hear much trash talking between my brother and me. (He’s no match for the master!)
- 11.1.2001 |
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Release Date:
11.15.2001
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