When I was but a tiny lad we all used to go up to the half-pipe in Bellerose. I'd try to skate, but busted up my behind more often than not. So I switched to bike racing until a parked car hit me. That's sort of a long story, but I digress. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a port job to be sure, but a good one at that. The simple basics has the player skate through a number of unique levels with several goals that must be completed in order to unlock the next. A goal could be anything from scoring 30,000 points, collecting letters by performing jump tricks to spell the word skate to finding a hidden video tape located high above the ground.

My friends and I used to record underground skate tapes by the Brooklyn Bridge years ago. Some of the tricks I saw amazed me. One time I saw someone do a grind on a stairwell railing. Then he fell, and got polled right in his bajeebus. Well come to think of it I stopped trying to skate right around that time.

There are tutorials that allow you to practice tricks to perfection, which newcomers to the Tony Hawk series will need to check out. The lessons are short, yet informative. Here you can ollie, nollie, grind, grab, kick or balance a manual to your hearts content. You will also learn how to score big by executing trick combos. Unfortunately the version I played had the keys mapped out wrong, but a quick scan through the readme file took care of the problem.

The keyboard commands get a bit confusing because the games pace is very fast at times. You must be able to perform a wide range of tricks very quickly in order to get the maximum amount of points. Once you land several tricks your meter maxes out and you can perform a super sick trick. To be sure these tricks look extra crazy, and incredibly cool. Granted it'll take a couple of tries to get it right, but once you do the rewards are oh so sweet. I got the hang of the keyboard after a while, but if you’re short on patients plug in a smoking gamepad, and you'll be set.

You can play as Tony, or as one of his many skater friends all of whom have different stats for different tricks they can perform. You can also custom tailor your skater's clothes, board or create a brand new skater from scratch. Career mode puts you in a competitive tour like circuit where you can keep track of your skater's progress.

The game also has free skate mode, which just drops you in the action as well as a park creator. This allows you to build your own course, which you can share online with other virtual skaters. The multiplay options have several basic games available including team based, capture the flag and, keep away.

The graphics are spiced up a bit from the Playstation 2 version, but nothing spectacular for a PC. One thing I must mention is the amount of blood when your skater lands sideways, and falls. It looks like his teeth were knocked out of his face. That's right it's frigging cool! I experienced a few clipping problems, and one time the sound crashed. This was a total drag because the sound of the board on concrete and the snap of the bones when you fall are all top-notch atmosphere enhancers. In the end the gameplay makes this title a thoroughly addicting joyride. Tony 3 offers too much fun to pass up. Once you learn how to pull off some of the harder tricks in the game you'll be hooked.

Install: Easy
Nothing much here, but auto and run.

Graphics: 8.5
Perhaps a bit dated compared to some of the shooter engines out there right now, but your skater will look good.

Sound: 8.5
Loud X-game soundtrack featuring the classic Ace of Spades. Oh yeah!

Concept: 8
Well it is number three in the series, but it's actually better than the last. Just make sure you master the new revert trick in order to pull big combos together.

Overall: 8.5
Pure fun. If you never played a Tony game your in for a treat.