Some publishers need to learn moderation. If there’s one thing I hate in video games it’s when something is successful and spawns an endless parade of derivatives. But that’s how it works. One game makes a splash, and hordes gather to ride the ripples. And money can’t explain it entirely. I can guarantee you that plenty of developers followed the Stardew Valley or Banished formulas out of passion. Passion doesn’t guarantee a unique idea.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater had this effect. Publishers wanted an extreme sports title, so we wound up with everything from surfboarding to tits. And since Activision had the real golden goose, it was annualized. Technically, it made it eleven years (from 1999 to 2010), but I find it difficult to count games like Tony Hawk’s: Motion, Tony Hawk: Ride, and Tony Hawk: Shred. Those were dark times. So, charitably, it was eight years. No, nine. The streak of not-dumb games ended with Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground in 2007. Which is the ninth game.

What the fuck? 1999-2007. My fingers say nine, but my brain calculator says eight. My desk calculator agrees with my brain calculator. I guess the zero in the count is an entry… Okay, let’s just move on before I rupture something.

Anyway, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 was the first one developed with the new generation of consoles in mind. It was released the same year as both the Xbox and GameCube, so it was practically a must-have for anyone who bought their consoles that year. I’m not sure I could have convinced my parents to get me another game that year, so I rented that, and then I eventually bought the rental copy when Blockbuster was clearing out old stock. Why am I telling you this? This is the worst intro I think I’ve ever written. This is where my flow-of-consciousness writing style lets me down. Let’s move on again.

MAKE A WISH! MAKE A DING-DANG WISH! DON’T LIVE A PORPOISE LIFE!

I should have just told you what the new generation of consoles brought. It’s mainly two things: reverts and people.

The levels in the first two games were completely desolate. At best, you got Ollie the Magic Bum and cars that would run you over. Places that would normally be bustling, like the shopping mall and schools, were shown after hours, so it was just you and the suspiciously abundant quarter-pipes. In Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, there are actually people wandering about. What do they add? Very little.

You can get a spectator bonus for doing tricks in front of people, but it’s generally better to just find the best lines and not pay much attention to where people are standing. Some objectives, however, have you helping people in the environment, which is an approach to missions that would be more of a focus on later games. Mostly, however, they’re just for decoration.

Reverts, on the other hand, are a very important addition. Essentially, if you do a revert the moment you hit the ground as you’re coming back down in a quarter pipe, you’ll be able to start a manual without ending your combo. You could already grind into a manual, then ride it up a quarter pipe to add a grab in THPS2, but this allowed you to do it in reverse. You could hit a quarter pipe, land into a manual, then hop into a grind. You could also chain together vert moves and lip tricks. It makes you wonder how we ever lived without it.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE

The actual formula is the same as the first two games, however. You’re given a list of objectives to complete around the skatepark and need to check enough off to move on. This includes classics like collecting the letters in S-K-A-T-E to ones enabled by the inclusion of other people, like burying a bully in snow. But, even then, those are just goals like “knock over all the No Skateboarding signs,” but with dialogue.

The levels themselves are a similar mix to what came before. You have your standard skate parks, your city streets, and your more fantastical locations. After every few locations, there’s a competition. I suppose what I’m saying is that it remains hard stuck to the set formula. They at least knew when it was getting stale, since they changed it with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. Three games of hitting tasks in a two-minute timeframe was just the right amount.

At the very least, I’d say it’s the best one of the trilogy. Or, rather, of the first four numbered games in general, but that’s getting ahead of myself. It includes some of the best levels yet, with the airport being an absolute classic. It helped the series cement its brand of humour with a crass, stupid, but playful tone. This could first be seen with Officer Dick and Ollie the Magic Bum, but it’s in full force here as you clear powerlines of birds so a suburbanite can watch TV and stop a car chase by first causing an Earthquake and then dropping a teetering car onto the road. As I said, dumb fun.

AND NEITHER CAN YOU

And it’s backed by what is probably the best soundtrack in the series. And that’s not because it’s full of well-known songs by well-known acts. It isn’t. A lot of the tunes are more novel than they are radio-friendly. The lead song is Ace of Spades by Motorhead. There’s representation by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Ramones, as well as bands like Alien Ant Farm and CKY, which were having a moment. But many of them – more than half – I had never heard of before or since.

What makes it great, however, is its tonal and thematic consistency. A lot of it is ridiculous. You’ll start a round and immediately be greeted by “Amoeba! Amoeba!” Another has the vocalist singing about stinky people. The quirky I’m Destroying the World by Guttermouth is backed by the angstier The Boy Who Destroyed the World by AFI. I Can’t Surf by The Reverend Horton Heat is something of a parody of surf rock, chanting “I can’t surf!” before finally answering with “And neither can you.” For that matter, have you taken in the lyrics of Ace of Spades? It’s fucking nonsense.

It all makes a great backdrop to some ridiculous, gravity-insulting skateboarding. I’m not sure who put the playlist together (Neversoft just listed staff credits in alphabetical order without roles), but they nailed it. I’m not sure whether they intentionally had a theme in mind or if it was just a happy accident, but I can’t imagine a more consistent licensed arrangement.

REVERE THE REVERT

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is hardly a monumental shift in the series. The revert completed the essential skillset of the games, but it’s not so impactful that it overshadows the games that came before it. On the other hand, the revert feels like a piece that was missing from the combo catalogue, and it left every game that proceeded it struggling to figure out how to move forward. In a perfect world, we would have gotten Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2+3, since the third game feels like the completion of a narrative arc.

That’s not to say the series was done. Another high water mark was right around the corner. But Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is a milestone and, in a way, the last word in the series’ original formula. Things changed more drastically going forward, and not always for the best. But they had to change, since any further, and I think its welcome would be worn threadbare. Thankfully, Neversoft knew when to call it, and the two-minute arcade gameplay formula ended on a high note.

8/10

This review was conducted on an original Xbox with a disc version of the game. It was paid for by the author. Note that this review does not apply to the N64/PS1 and GBA versions, since they’re mostly different.