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

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a ...

video game and the third installment in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by

Neversoft Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the st ...

and 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 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 ...

label in 2001 for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

and

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

. In 2002, it was published for the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

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

(becoming the last game ever released on the console as it had been discontinued 3 1/2 months prior), and

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. 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, rebranded "M ...

. It was the first game released for the PlayStation 2 supporting online play and was a launch title for the GameCube in North America. ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' received critical acclaim from critics, with the PlayStation 2 version being tied for highest-rated PlayStation 2 game on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

alongside ''

Grand Theft Auto III ''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 1999's ''Grand Theft Auto 2'', and the fifth instalment o ...

''. With the PlayStation 2 version 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 of all time.

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. Due to the shut down of most Sony servers the game is no longer playable with others online, except for via programs like

XLink Kai XLink Kai is a program developed by Team XLink allowing for online play of video games with support for LAN multiplayer modes. It enables players on the GameCube, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable ...

or through websites that allow users to play online through a DNS. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions run on the '' Pro Skater 2'' engine, with a different revert animation that is the same as the PlayStation version of ''Pro Skater 4''. The game features thirteen professional skateboarders, along with several unlockable original characters, depending on the version. Furthermore, the game features

Darth Maul Darth Maul, also known simply as Maul, is a character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise. He first appeared as the secondary antagonist of the 1999 film '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' (portrayed by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Se ...

Doomguy The Doomguy (also spelt Doom Guy, as well as referred to as the Doom Marine, Doom Slayer or just the Slayer in ''Doom'' (2016) and '' Doom Eternal'') is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ''Doom'' video game franchise of first-perso ...

and

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...

via licensing deals, as well as extreme sports athletes

Shaun Palmer Shaun Palmer (born November 14, 1968) is an American professional snowboarder, skier, mountain biker, and motocross rider. Nicknamed "Napalm" and "Palm Daddy", he is known as one of the forefathers of extreme sports. Early life Palmer was born ...

and

Kelly Slater Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time. Slater is also ...

. Additionally, the Japanese and other Asian versions featured three Japanese pro skaters. In both the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions, the wooden sides on the board (around the grip tape) has colors (except

Bam Margera Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera ( ; born September 28, 1979) is an American former professional skateboarder, stunt performer, television personality, and filmmaker. He rose to prominence in the early 2000s as one of the stars of the MTV reality s ...

Jamie Thomas Jamie Thomas (born October 11, 1974) is an American professional skateboarder and skateboard industry entrepreneur. Thomas is the owner and founder of Zero Skateboards and Fallen Footwear, until he announced its closure in January 2017. Thomas ...

, and the custom skater's decks), and 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.

Reception

Chester Barber reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for '' Next Generation'', rating it five stars out of five, and stated, "PS2's most impressive game to date. Not just perfectly balanced – ''THPS3'' offers enough new elements to warrant the coveted fifth star reserved for revolutionary titles". 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

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(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/editor of the gaming website ''Giant Bomb'', Gerstmann began working at ''GameSpot'' in th ...

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 20 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 console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...

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'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game 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 distri ...

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. Yes, Tony Hawk 3 is that good. The perfect skating game remains a small distance out of reach, but if you are not satisfied with your purchase of this game, head examinations are recommended". The game is currently the top rated PS2 game on the review aggregate website

, with an average score of 97/100, tying with ''

''. 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 ''Madden NFL 2003'' is an American football simulation video game based on the NFL that was developed by EA Tiburon and Budcat Creations and published by EA Sports. The 14th installment of the ''Madden NFL series'', the game features former St. ...

''. 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".

Awards

* E3 2001

Game Critics Awards The Game Critics Awards are a set of annual awards held after the E3 video game conference since 1998. The awards are given to products displayed at E3 with the title Best of E3 of their category. Format The nominees and winners of the awards a ...

: Best Sports Game *2002 Interactive Achievement Awards: Best Sports Console Game

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 Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Color games GameCube games Gearbox Software games Interactive Achievement Award winners Classic Mac OS games 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 scored by Allister Brimble Video games set in Brazil Video games set in Canada Video games set in Japan Video games set in Los Angeles Video games set in Tokyo Video games set in the United States Video games with custom soundtrack support Windows games Xbox games D.I.C.E. Award for Sports Game of the Year winners Video games developed in the United States HotGen games