Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Preview

Since its introduction in mid-2001, the Game Boy Advance has surprised gamers time and time again with its ability to produce graphics and sound that surpass those of its supposed direct forefather, the SNES. People's expectations of what a handheld game should look like were raised when developer Vicarious Visions produced an almost pitch-perfect port of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, representing the game with an isometric view and fully polygonal skaters at the GBA's launch. Vicarious Visions is at it again with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Activision recently sent us a three-level beta of THPS3, and while it takes a few more liberties with the level design than THPS2 for the GBA, it is still shaping up to be an excellent Tony Hawk experience.

Tony does some tiny tricks.

While the build of the game that we received did not include any of the career mode options, we were still able to get a good feel for the game's mechanics, which work similarly to those found in THPS2 for the GBA. The control defaults to using the B button for jumps, the A button for grinds, the left shoulder button for flip tricks, and the right shoulder button for grabs, as well as the revert, though just like in THPS2 for the GBA, the button assignments are completely customizable. The gameplay is almost identical to that found in the console version of THPS3, though we were unable to perform multiple grinds without leaving the rail, and a number of basic and special tricks found in the console version were unavailable in this build of the game.

A little GBA style graffiti adds some atmosphere to the game.

Aside from the 13 real-life skaters included in Tony Hawk 3, the game features a create-a-skater mode. It's a pretty simple feature, allowing basic alterations to your skater's skin tone, shirt, shirt logo, pants, shoes, and tattoos, but it brings the game that much closer to duplicating the experience of its bigger brother. The build also included a single multiplayer mode, allowing up to four players to participate in a game of Horse on a single GBA. Hopefully, link cable support and a wider variety of multiplayer modes will be included in the full version.