The following is a conversation between Transmetal and some un-named higher power:

What the hell, this review is so pointless. Why must I do this?!

Dammit Transmetal, all you do is write these wierd stories... That's not work, that's fun. That, and you promised that you would review EVERY one of your Gamecube games.

But it's Tony Hawk we're talking about here! Everyone's pretty much decided whether they like these games or not by now. And Tony Hawk 4 is already out, doesn't that make this review redundant?

True, but you are an editor. You aren't supposed to think.

Come on, I wanna work on that new super secret series that Kain and I are working on

What the hell do you think you're talking about... Just get off your ass and review the game already!

*sigh* Alright, reader? Just go out and buy the damn game. It's fun. But if you're still with me, I'll give you a little piece of my mind on the game...

Still here? Wow, aren't you a stubbern little animal. The game starts off with the usual logos and such. The Neversoft one is still pretty funny, with the eye doing... whatever the hell strange eye's do... After the logos, the game jumps into some live action footage of skaters doing their thing. Skating, of course. If you're too lazy to click the start button and skip the intro sequence (if this applies, may God have mercy on your soul, and your crappy gaming abilities), sit back and enjoy the punk music. Might as well get used to it anyway, there's alot of it in the game. The menu screen is located in a skateshop of sorts. Unlike the last game (where you would purchase new "decks" and stats and such), their isn't anything to really purchase here. Everything you get is found by collecting them as items within the game levels. So I simply select Tony as my character and jump into the first level. Now, what else am I supposed to say? Oh yeah, it's lots of fun. The first level is located in some molton lava factory thingy. I don't really know what it is, but there seems to be alot of conviently placed ramps and rails. But, whatever. I grind, I do tricks, I reak havoc, and I whack the manager upside the head with a crane. All true, all of it is fun stuff. Onwards to the review.

These graphics were born and created specificly for the PS2. This isn't a bad thing at all, as I don't really see where they could improve anymore. I know there will always be jumps in technological that we simply can't predict, but the Neversoft team has reached a point where there are absolutely no major detractions in terms of graphics. All of the surfaces look nice and smooth. All of the framerates look nice and smooth. All of the babes look nice and smooth. All joking aside, it simply looks nice. There are many cool details here and there. There are people populating these levels that actually look like people. One of my favorite points is the complete abscence of visible draw-in, as this was something that pissed me off alot about the multiplayer modes in the N64 and PSX versions. Speaking of multiplayer, there isn't anything taken out of the multiplayer mode in comparison to the single player mode. As far as I can tell, everything is the same, something that really makes me happy.

When I first played this game, I wasn't too pleased with the music. To be blunt, I hated it. Listening to fast paced punk (or what seemed fast to my ears) was something that just didn't sit with me. I loved the music from the first Tony Hawk off the bat. The second one took a while, but I learned to love it. A similar thing happened with Tony Hawk 3. After I listened to it, I began to enjoy it. But for the first few days, I simply could not shut up about how crappy I thought the music sounded. Another nice thing is the sheer amount of music here. I know that in the PC and Xbox versions you can create your own soundtracks (at least I think you can in the Xbox version), but I'm pleased with the playlist availble to me in this version.

Oh, and the sound FX. Not bad at all. I don't see any major detractors here. The part that really stuck with me was that when you pass by NPCs, they always share a piece of their mind. Things like "You suck" and "Is that all you've got?" are spouted out depending on whether you're in the middle of a large trick combo, or if you've just landed on a rail with your crotch. Listening to a workman scream as a bucket of molton metal falls off its hook provides far much more entertainment than it should have.

Gameplay in Tony Hawk has been compared to and linked to a wide variety of genres. The connections that stand out the most are that of platformers and fighting games. The whole game is spent navigating around areas performing tricks. These flips, grabs, hand stands, grinds, etc... are all accomplished by a variety of button combos. These button combos are very reminiscent of the sort of combos you've accomplished in fighting games like Soul Calibur (Transmetal's favorite). Then, sometimes you need to reach wierd, out of reach places to get stat points or whatever. This requires platforming skills of sorts, mostly involving grinding up certain rails. This all creates a wide range of appeal for many gamers. All of the aforementioned applies to every Tony Hawk game. What makes this particular game special is improvements such as something called the "revert". Errrr... I think that's what it's called. Sorry, I'm not an expert of skating lingo :). Basically, this means you can string your tricks in previously unimaginable ways. Imagine grinding on a rail for a few minutes, going into a manual, using your momentum to launch off a ramp and do a few grabs, then go back to the manual, which you can then use to go back to the rail. You can string out absurdly long combinations of tricks, and absurdly large points. The only detraction I see here is that not much changed in between THPS2 and this incarnation. Enough to make it refreshing, but not enough to make it a completely new experience.

This is one area where I can speak with some expertise. I've tried Tony Hawk on PSX, PS2, Xbox, DC, and Gamecube. By far, I think the Gamecube controller does the best job out of all of them. I've never really liked the PS2's analouge stick, Dreamcast's joystick felt too sensitive, and Xbox? Dammit, it's a bear. Gamecube just fits your hand. Alright Xbox fanboys, just let Gamecube controller sit in your hand for a few minutes. Let it rest. Apply pressure only when you need to. The joystick sensitivity is juuuuust right. The buttons just feel right, and the triggers work wonders. The best part of all is how you can customize the button combinations for all the tricks. This comes together to create an easy to use controller system that just makes me so happy I could cry. Boo yeah!

It's so cool what Neversoft is able to do with this series. They have yet to let us down with their Hawk titles, and I hope they continue their rampage of great liscenced games. This game is made great by its gameplay variety, its wonderful control, and the overall fun factor. If you don't buy it, rent it. If you don't rent it, borrow it from a friend. Just play it, it's good.

+ Controls like a dream

+ Fun to play, wide appeal

- Punk music may rub you the wrong way

? Wow, these guys have ALOT of blood. Streaks everywhere...

Overall (not an average): 8.5/10
Fun to play, and everyone loves Tony Hawk, right?