Review:
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Reviewer: David Jones
Edited by: Mike Dixon (3/15/04)
Mac publisher: Aspyr Media ($29.99 est. retail price)

Tony Hawk, the legend of skateboarding, brings you into his world yet again with even more cement shredding action than ever before! Go high flying through some of the coolest skateparks in the world. Pull insane tricks and bails, but beware of the pedestrians and cars along the streets. You may not be able to live like the legend, but now you can skate like him!

Features include:

• All new online play lets you go head to head or share with friends around the world.
• Multiplayer Modes: all the old favorites plus three new team based online games- Capture the flag, Control the Zone and Keep Away.
• Skate as the legendary Tony Hawk or choose from 12 other pro skaters
  10 Massive Living Levels that are amazingly realistic.
• Now more tricks than ever, including the revert and flatland tricks like the handstand manual.
• An enhanced Create-A-Skater feature to customize the look of your player by choosing female or kid skaters and add sunglasses, hair, elbow pads, tattoos and more!
• Skate some of the most popular real-world locations including Skater's Island in Middleton, RI, Los Angeles, Canada skate camp, and Tokyo.
  

This game was tested using Mac OS X 10.2.6. Installation was very quick and easy. I used a MacAlly controller. The game was very responsive at 1024x768 screen resolution on a 1 Ghz Powerbook G4 (15-inch).

In a nutshell, the game developer only made the game better in this new version, improving an already great game. There are more parks, more tricks, and more customizable options than ever. This new version allows you to play head to head with others online, like in the HORSE game. You try to match your opponent trick for trick and the best trick receives a higher score. The person with the lowest score each time, gets a letter. When you have the letters that spell H-O-R-S-E, you lose. It's really fun and a change of pace from the normal goal oriented skating of some of the other levels. This version also lets you create a player that most represents your personality by choosing your skater's gear, from head to toe, including hair styles, sunglasses, Tony Hawk's shoes and even a snorkel mask (yes a scuba mask and snorkel!).

This version has more real life skaters to choose from than ever (plus you can unlock very special characters by using cheat codes). I noticed the sounds were very true to life, from the environmental effects to the skater's moans and groans during runs. As you get into the more advanced levels, the opposing skaters will actually cheer for you (and boo when you fall or perform poorly). But the game sounds really cool through a good set of speakers. Combine those effects with great music and it really enhances the playing experience.

No problems found.

This game continues to blow my mind. All of the new elements in Tony Hawk 3 make it more realistic than ever. The sounds, tricks, parks, etc. have only gotten better in version 3. I hope future versions will allow users to import their own graphics to create even more realistic elements such as facial features, signs at the skate parks, etc. But all in all, this game is as good as it gets. I am going to make this review conclusion very simple for everyone: just go buy it. This has become my first choice for computer games. It's the first computer game in 8 years that can go head to head with the EA Sports NHL Series. Now that's the biggest compliment I can give any video game.

A word of warning: the falls can be visually graphic. Some spills produce small amounts of blood. In this Version 3, the blood on the terrain is cumulative. So if you fall on your first run, the blood will be there on your fifth run. Parental advisory recommended, and never let children attempt the exaggerated stunts in this game.