Tony Hawk rules the universe.

Not only is he the most famous and influential skateboarder of all time... not only does he have his own clothing line... and not only does he have a beautiful family... he's got his name attached to one of the most successful video game franchises in history. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is the definitive skateboarding experience, and the series has inspired the entire action-sports genre and has spurned countless imitators. Now Tony and the gang are back in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for just about every console under the sun, and I'm glad to see them.

Graphically, THPS3 is quite good. The skaters are all well-modeled, well-textured and expertly animated. The tricks have never looked better, and I especially love the new leaning animations. It actually appears that your skater is trying to keep his balance while grinding a rail or lip. The new bail animations are great as well, such as when your board skips along the ground without your skater falling. You can even switch grind maneuvers without jumping, and the transitions between grinds are very smooth. The biggest graphical improvement is the frame rate. Not only does it look great, but playing at 60fps allows you much more control over your trick placement, enabling you to string together combos more easily. Like all Tony Hawk games, there are a few clipping, glitching and frame rate problems here and there, but you'd have to be an absolute joyless bastard to let it affect your opinion of the game. So don't!

The skating arenas are much larger than in past iterations, and they're packed with more polygonal stuff. More stuff, of course, means more things to trick off, so there's lots more to do overall. The environments are alive with life: people walking the sidewalks, cars driving through the streets, and photographers waiting to snap a killer shot of you in action. You can get bonus points by impressing random passers-by, but don't get to close, since all of the people who inhabit the game can knock you on your can. The detail in most of the levels is just what you'd expect from a next-gen title, from flushing toilets in the Airport bathroom, to swimsuit models insulting you on the Cruise Ship to the crumbling freeways in Los Angeles. Neversoft has once again done a wonderful job of crafting a large, detailed world in which you'll want to skate over and over again.

The first level, The Foundry, is essentially a cross between The Hangar from THPS2 and The Warehouse from the original, making it a great opening session on which to get your skating legs back. Suburbia is an interesting landscape, featuring a trailer park, some affluent homes with swimming pools and even a haunted house, complete with tombstones and spooky lightning. My personal favorite, though, is definitely The Airport, a long corridor level reminiscent of The Mall and Downhill Jam from the original game. I feel those types of levels were sorely missed in THPS2. The game also contains the requisite three competition levels: Rio, Skater's Island (a real-life park) and Tokyo. After finishing the first eight levels, you're rewarded with a hidden ninth skate arena, the Cruise Ship. This very cool park comes complete with it's own set of Career Goals, and sports some great opportunities for long, difficult combos. Neversoft has kindly provided a few original THPS levels for your skating pleasure (The Warehouse, Portland and Roswell), but you'll have to work hard to unlock them.

Speaking of which, the career mode is back and better than ever. Each skate park has a series of goals which must be cleared to move on. These range from the standard point-based objectives and collecting S-K-A-T-E, to more park-specific goals, like smashing 5 pumpkins in Suburbia. You build your skater by collecting stat points placed throughout each level, which can be stored and spent on adjusting your statistics at any time. The game also encourages exploration, in that there is a hidden deck in each level for you to find. The roster of skaters remains the same, with the notable absence of Bob Burnquist, who jumped ship to star in Konami's underwhelming ESPN X Games Skateboarding. You should've stayed with a winner, Bob! The career mode is as addicting as ever, and the level goals slowly increase in difficulty, so you won't be stumped for too long. Some of the goals even change depending on your skater's style (street or vert), so there is incentive to play through multiple times.

The soundtrack is a much tighter affair than THPS2, but still not as cool as the original. Why no ska bands, Neversoft? Rockin' tracks from the Rollins Band, Motorhead and The Ramones keep the proceedings tight and fast, while Redman and Del the Funky Homosapien throw out some hip-hop jams to loosen everyone up. There are lots of great tracks here, and you can turn off the annoying ones in the playlist manager. The best song is "Amoeba" by the Adolescents; they're chanting "Amoeba", but it sounds like they're saying "Tony Hawk", making it a great unintentional theme song. I don't know what that has to do with anything, but there you have it. I wish Neversoft would put bands like Goldfinger and The Ernies back on the playlist, though, as they both provided a great vibe to the original game's soundtrack that hasn't been felt since.

The play mechanics are perfect. What else needs to be said, really? If you've played the prior Pro Skater games, then THPS3 is like coming home for the holidays. The game plays exactly as before, with one exception: the Revert. This new landing trick enables you to continue a combo even after pulling a vert trick. Simply tap R2 at the instant your skater lands a vert trick, and you'll pull a Revert. Immediately combo into a manual, and you can continue your trick string for as long as your balance holds out. Million point combos are well within your reach now, and the new trick additions give you the flexibility to craft some really drawn-out and cool-looking sequences. One other notable change involves Special Tricks. Your Special meter builds slowly over the course of a combo, instead of all-at-once like in the past games. This means you can toss in a few Special moves without having to finish your combo, giving you greater freedom and higher scores.

The 2-player modes are identical to those in the first two games, including Horse, Trick Attack and Graffiti. New to the roster is Slap!, which encourages physical violence against your fellow skaters. Tony Hawk 3 also has the notable distinction of being the first PS2 game to feature online play. Just plug in any third-party USB ethernet adaptor, and you're ready to go. I haven't been able to test this myself, but I've heard it works fairly reliably.

Tony Hawk 3 feels like the perfect evolution of the series. It's large, it looks great, it plays like a dream and it's fun as hell. There are tons of hidden skaters and parks, plus lots of cheats to open up for dedicated players. Even after unlocking everything, you'll still be playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, as it's just impossible to put down. Great job again, Neversoft.