It's not easy to churn out another game in a popular franchise and keep the fans happy, but Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was the one where it all finally came together, making the previous two incarnations of this game appear amateurish in comparison.

In this game you are a skateboarder. You can choose from any of the famous faces from the skateboarding world, such as Geoff Rowley, Steve Caballero and Bucky Lasek (as well as Tony Hawk himself of course). You can even play as Bam Margera from the TV show Jackass. Alternatively you can create your own character in the create-a-skater mode, choosing your own clothes, hair and style with loads of accessories to choose from, including tattoos, skate pads and jewellery. Each level has different objectives that you need to achieve to unlock the next level. These can be as simple as performing enough tricks to get a high score, or slightly more difficult when you have to skate around the park and trigger certain events to happen or leap ridiculously high in the air. These also open up new items in the create-a-skater shop. There is also a create-a-skate park mode where you can build your own dream skate park.

The game mechanics allow you to perform many tricks together, meaning you could theoretically do tricks for the entire duration of each level, linking from one to another. As your character progresses you are also awarded stat points which you can distribute on a variety of skills, such as speed, rail balancing and air time, to either specialise or round out your skater's abilities, depending on your own style of play. In reality what you will find is that there is never enough time on each run to complete all the objectives of a level, so you will have to do multiple runs to complete all the goals, possibly many runs to achieve the more difficult ones. i would often spend one run just finding a good spot to link all my combo moves together to achieve the highest score I possibly could, and then spend future runs moving on to a new objective. It has a multiplayer mode and a good thing to keep in mind is that if you are about to collide with another skater then the person who is going the slowest is the one that will be knocked down!

The game levels themselves are large enough to stay interesting on many runs and you can interact with pretty much every part of the level. As you complete objectives you will sometimes be rewarded with a cut scene showing what you have achieved, for example dumping snow on a bully. There's a hidden videotape on every normal level and you must collect the letters that make up the word SKATE in every level too, as part of the nine objectives for each level. Every normal level also holds five extra stat points plus a new deck. There are also three competition levels where you simply have to score as many points as you can in a one minute run in order to try and earn a gold medal. Trust me when I say that you will want to do as many runs as possible to get the stat points from the early levels, as the tricks required to achieve the objectives in later levels will be too difficult to achieve if you have not made your skater as awesome as possible!

There's many videos to unlock within the game, including footage of pro skaters pulling off tricks, or failing dramatically. If you need to practice your skills before entering the career mode then you can choose to simply skate around any of the parks, either with no time limit, or with a two-minute timer and the game keeping track of any records you may set for that level. If you are a complete beginner then there is a great tutorial which teaches you the basics of the game mechanics. If you choose to do career mode and complete every objective with one skater then you will be rewarded with extra items, whether it's a hidden skater, secret level or a cheat mode.
The game just feels great to play. When you are picking up speed (and points) coming down a ramp and you hit a manual and then rail grind, hop to a different rail, back to manual and then keep this up for as long as you possibly can, it feels awesome! The points multiplier increases with each new move switch, allowing you to post some monster scores.

Graphics: 9
This game looks amazing and plays well with very few glitches. It makes great use of draw distance to allow you to plan out your upcoming tricks, which are performed with smooth animations. The levels are colourful and have plenty of detail in them. Overall the graphics help the game feel realistic, especially when you fall over and your blood is suddenly streaked across the road.

Sound: 10
If I could give the sound effects and soundtrack for this game a score higher than 10 out of 10 then I would!! It has a great mix of songs that fit perfectly well into the skate scene and which I still listen to now on my personal music playlists. The game helps you associate great feelings of fun and achievement with each of the songs. You can even turn off some of the tracks if you don't like them. The sound effects are perfect for every action, whether it's the type of ground you are skating over, or crashing into a person. The sound of skating itself is replicated to absolute perfection. You can even cause onlookers to praise your skills by pulling off an awesome move in front of them!

Addictiveness: 8
With all the objectives and secret items to unlock and multiplayer modes and new high scores to set, this is one of the most addictive games I have played. It has infinite replayability and my copy of the game still gets played to this day.

Story: 7
The story in Tony Hawk 3 is a personal one. It is the story of you starting out in career mode as an average skater, building up your skills and experience to become a skating legend.

Depth: 7
This game is everything you could want and hope for from a skating game, especially the relatively large levels that have plenty to do and offer lots of replayability.

Difficulty: 7
There are so many individual tricks, which then lead on to almost infinite potential combos, that you will probably only master half of them, if that. Some of the objectives within the levels can be difficult to achieve, though this can be made easier by increasing the stats of your skater.

Overall: 8
This is the best skateboarding game I have ever played and is still a lot of fun today.