Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 - On this day

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series may have been a surprise in ’99, it might have been unbelievable how good a sequel it got next year. But with the third part, there weren’t too many surprises - we expected a great game and got one of the best skate games ever.

By moving to the then-new PlayStation 2 console, the Neversoft development team was allowed to expand the THPS series with new ideas. One of these new ideas was online multiplayer. It was a very rudimentary form of online gaming at the time, but it served a purpose.

Another significant thing was the introduction of a revert trick that by connecting to the manual could continue the combo even after getting off the half-pipe. Another novelty that directed the series towards arcade waters was the removal of the so-called Big Drop, which meant that a skater could be successfully greeted on the ground no matter from what height he landed.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 brought an almost copied lineup of skaters from the deuce - only Bob Burnquist was missing, and he was replaced by Bam Margera. The trio also allowed us to create our skaters for the first time in the series. Among the guest characters were Wolverine, Darth Maul, and Kelly Slater. The game took us to Brazil, Canada, Japan, and Hawaii, but not all levels were available in all versions of the game.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 picked up great reviews and with GTA 3 it still stands today as the top-rated game for the PlayStation 2 console. Except in the PS2 version, it came out in a slightly truncated edition for the PS1 and N64, and later got released for the PC, Xbox, and GameCube. The PlayStation 2 version has sold over two million copies, making it the platform's 14th best-selling game.