For its first steps on Microsoft soil, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 must be the best vintage in the series. Successful bet ? Or on the contrary would Activision be resting on its laurels?
As the name suggests, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a skateboarding game. It must be said that this style of play is relatively recent and the number of titles can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Only Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is present everywhere, from PC to Gamecube, from Nintendo 64 to Dreamcast, from Game Boy to Playstation and even on Game Boy Advance. Such a hegemony does not allow other titles to be recognized despite their admittedly imperfect but very interesting potential (Trasher, Skate & Destroy, in particular).
And of course, for each version the graphic quality must be there. God it would be horrifying to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on Xbox with GBA graphics!
Luckily, the game leverages Xbox's capabilities pretty well through its skaters and backgrounds. Thus we can notice that the textures are much more softened, that the clothes benefit from an even more real rendering. It almost felt like we were directly controlling Tony and his friends.
As for the decorations, they have clearly evolved compared to the previous versions. First of all, the space in which you will progress is much larger and much more developed. On the program: an airport, a liner, a snowy village, a city center and of course 3 outdoor and indoor skate parks. And all over the world. For each level, Activision has added a hint of life. That is to say spectators, passers-by, cars that have an important role in the game.
This can be felt through the different game modes. First of all, there is the essential Career mode which allows you to progress in the game by achieving various objectives such as performing a grind or a grab on such a module, finding a secret cassette , get a score of X points, activate a mechanism or impress the spectators. There are nine objectives per level. Of course, not all levels are accessible and you will have to persevere in accomplishing these tasks to unlock new places and skate parks.
Then there are always the Free Skate and Time Trial modes. One allows you to skate freely but the points will not be counted. With the second, you must make a maximum of points in 2 minutes.
Finally, there is a multiplayer mode which is divided into two parts.
The 2-player mode is obviously present where you can face a friend. We find the same modes as for Tony Hawk n°2, that is to say the Time Trial, Tag mode (where you have to perform tricks to color a module) and Hangman mode (the one that makes the most small score is given a letter, and so on until the word is completely uncovered). In addition, two new modes have been added, that of Cat and Mouse (drop the opponent so that it becomes the cat) and the King (find a crown hidden in a level).
The second rather fun multiplayer mode because it involves LAN games against 3 other Xboxes.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater has become so famous for its intuitive handling that allows anyone to string together tricks (figures) without any problem. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is just as handy as ever. Novices will have no trouble starting with a few kickflips and other methods. Those who are used to the friend Tony will swim in full happiness and the combos will be linked easily. Only the speed of the skater will shock and at first it will be a little difficult to control it (especially when you have to achieve objectives down to the millimeter).
And about the tricks, the number of grabs, flips, grinds has been increased, with as always the possibility of configuring them as you see fit. And the rendering? Well, thanks to Motion Capture, each figure is in line with reality.
It's a great show, a pure adrenaline rush accompanied by an explosive musical atmosphere. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ramones, Xzibit, Alien Ant Farm will be there, a mix of punk, rock, hip-hop quite pleasant even if over the hours, it gets tired. But hey, it's pretty common in video games.
Otherwise, this third opus benefits from voices, French moreover. We are delighted.
By offering a rather full-bodied challenge, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 keeps us in suspense for a very long time … but also puts a few spokes in the wheels. Finishing with the 13 characters (and the hidden ones) is not easy even if some objectives change according to the skaters. Fortunately, the 2-player mode is there to refresh our ideas (and soon the 4-player online mode). Otherwise, in the meantime you can always create your own skate park or skater.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 has succeeded in winning the bet easily on Xbox, devoid of the genre. Without revolutionizing the genre, Activision certainly offers us the best of the series, all consoles combined. This 3rd opus will delight fans from the start and will offer newcomers the opportunity to discover a mythical series through its best episode.
