''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' is a 2001

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

video game and the third installment in the ''

Tony Hawk's ''Tony Hawk's'' is a series of skateboarding video games published by Activision and endorsed by the Tony Hawk, American professional skateboarder of the same name. From 1999 to 2007, the series was primarily developed for Home video game conso ...

'' series. It was published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

under the Activision O2 label in 2001 for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

and

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

. In 2002, it was published for the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

, and the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

. It was the final official release for the Nintendo 64 (having been discontinued 3 months prior) and the only game that was released for the system in 2002, the first game released for the PlayStation 2 supporting online play and was a launch title for the GameCube in North America and PAL regions. ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' received critical acclaim, with the PlayStation 2 version being tied for highest-rated PlayStation 2 game on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

alongside '' Grand Theft Auto III'', and selling over 2.1 million copies in the United States by July 2006. ''Pro Skater 3'' is also considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. A remake of the game is included as part of ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4'', due to release in July 2025.

Gameplay

''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' saw the introduction of the revert, a trick that enabled vert combos to be tied together with a manual, by tapping a button when landing in a quarterpipe; it allows for much longer combos than in the previous two games, where landing in a quarterpipe would finish a combo. It also added hidden combos. These were variations on standard tricks that could be performed as grab, flip, lip, or grind tricks. For example, double-tapping the kickflip button would make the character perform a double kickflip. This system would later be refined in '' Pro Skater 4''. The game stood out in the franchise for being the first title to have online capabilities. Users could connect directly to other players online on the PlayStation 2 version—even prior to the launch of the network adapter, with a USB Ethernet adapter. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions run on the '' Pro Skater 2'' engine. The game has new tricks such as the Cannonball, Wrap Around, Fingerflip, Del Mar Indy and a new animation for the Airwalk. The Xbox version has an improved frame rate over the PlayStation 2 and GameCube version, as well as an additional level, the Oil Rig.

Featured pro skaters and characters

The game features thirteen professional skateboarders, along with several unlockable original characters, depending on the version. Furthermore, the game features Darth Maul, Doomguy and

Wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

via licensing deals, as well as professional surfer

Kelly Slater Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer who has been crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. He is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship T ...

(to coincide with '' Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer''). Additionally, the Japanese and other Asian versions feature exclusive Japanese pro skaters. unlockable Japan-exclusive PC-exclusive Xbox-exclusive Game Boy Advance-exclusive

Development

Shortly prior to release, Neversoft quickly amended some of the objectives in the Airport level due to sensitivity reasons in light of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, where terrorist

non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...

s were instead reskinned into pickpockets. Series producer Ralph D'Amato recalled: "When 9/11 happened, we were almost finished with ''Pro Skater 3''. We had an airport level where the goal was to stop terrorists bombing the plane. We had to scramble and change it to stopping pickpockets".

Reception

Chester Barber of '' Next Generation'' gave five stars out of five for PlayStation 2 version, highly praising the gameplay, new tricks to perform, graphics and controls. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' had sold 2.1 million copies and earned $77 million in the United States. '' Next Generation'' ranked it as the 14th highest-selling game launched for the

between January 2000 and July 2006 in the country. Combined sales of ''Tony Hawk'' console games released in the 2000s reached 10.7 million units in the U.S. by July 2006. Its PlayStation 2 version also received a "Platinum" sales award from the British Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the country. The PS2 version earned a rare perfect 10 score from

Jeff Gerstmann Jeff Gerstmann (born August 1, 1975) is an American video game journalist. Former editorial director of the gaming website ''GameSpot'' and the co-founder of the gaming website '' Giant Bomb'', Gerstmann began working at ''GameSpot'' in the fal ...

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

(one of only 30 titles to earn this award in

's history), who stated that the game "makes everything before it almost unplayable by comparison". ''GameSpot'' named ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' the best PlayStation game, best alternative sports

console game A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connec ...

and overall second-best console game of 2001. It was also nominated for the publication's annual "Best GameCube Game" and "Best PlayStation 2 Game" awards. It was also awarded the best sports game award at E3 2001.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

rated the game 9.7/10, stating that the game "should go down in history as one of the best twitch-fests on PlayStation 2". The game is currently the top rated PS2 game on the review aggregate website

, with an average score of 97/100, tying with '' Grand Theft Auto III''. Famitsu gave the game a 30/40. ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' was a runner-up for ''GameSpot''s 2002 "Best Sports Game on PC" award, which went to '' Madden NFL 2003''. It won the publication's 2002 "Best Sports Game on Game Boy Advance" award, and was a runner-up for "Game of the Year on Game Boy Advance". During the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' was honored with the " Console Sports" award by the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

; it also received nominations for outstanding achievement in "

Animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

" and " Visual Engineering".

Awards

* E3 2001 Game Critics Awards: Best Sports Game *

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Interactive Achievement Awards: Console Sports Game of the Year

Sequel

A fourth game in the series, titled ''Pro Skater 4'', was released the following year in October 2002.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2001 video games Activision games Aspyr games Beenox games Classic Mac OS games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Color games GameCube games Gearbox Software games HotGen games Impact of the September 11 attacks on the video game industry MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Neversoft games Nintendo 64 games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games RenderWare games Skateboarding video games Pro Skater 3 Vicarious Visions games Video game sequels Video games developed in Canada Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Allister Brimble Video games set in Brazil Video games set in Canada Video games set in Los Angeles Video games set in New Mexico Video games set in Paris Video games set in the United States Video games set in Tokyo Windows games Xbox games