I remember the days when Tony Hawk and good extreme sports games were synonymous. It wasn't that long ago that Hawk could release a game and it was a million unit seller within the first few weeks that it released. Alas, along came Skate and changing demographics and there went Mr. Hawk's hold on the genre. But Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was the pinnacle of his dominance in the genre of skateboarding video games and it still holds up as a decent if not staid example of how things used to be done.

The crux of the Tony Hawk series has always been outrageous stunts and getting air. It's no different in THPS3. You still go to varied locations, grind to your heart's content, complete objectives and maybe create a career for someone. Oh, and the create-a-skater feature is still there with a little bit more juice to it.

The controls are simple and it's easy to pick up. Before picking up the third game, I'd only played the first for Dreamcast, and it wasn't that hard to understand how things tied together control-wise.

When I wasn't slamming into rails or missing jumps so that my avatar nearly killed herself, I was actually enjoying the soundtrack. Featuring tunes from the likes of Redman, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and AFI, the soundtrack is decent. I love the added bonus of being able to create an in-game playlist.

The music actually adds to the atmosphere of skating around, and while the audio can get obnoxious with stereotypical voice samples from NPCs, it can be turned off. Really, the sound is a boon here and couldn't be better.

I do have a few problems with the game, though. I don't like that even though it's easy to pick up and start playing, the game assumes that you've played some form of THPS beforehand. That's not necessarily so. The game assumes that you know immediately how the combo system works or how to pull off special moves. Though you can change the button combinations for the moves in the options, it still would be great to get some kind of help. Also, the graphics aren't exactly up to par.

While I recognize that this is a 2001-era game, the visuals in some spots take a hit at high speeds and the polygons are noticeable. My create-a-skater is pretty close in likeness but the facial animation leaves something to be desired.

This is a decent game, despite some small problems. There's lot to do on varied stages with different characters. I couldn't ask for more and this is Hawk at the top of his game.

The series went downhill quickly after this so if you're going to grind somewhere, this is the place to be.

When Tony Hawk’s games were still good

By Lyndsey Mosley / Gaming Insurrection

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