Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 brought the core of Neversoft's famous skateboarding series to the Game Boy Advance, with the handheld version created by Vicarious Visions, a studio that specialized in porting the Tony Hawk brand to the GBA. The player once again strings together combos of tricks on ramps, rails, and other obstacles across a series of open levels, completes timed objectives, and racks up points, with the revert system remaining a key element, allowing ground and air tricks to be seamlessly chained into long combos. The player also collects hidden tapes and special points and unlocks new riders and their attributes, which, together with difficulty ratings for individual objectives, creates a solid incentive to return to the same level repeatedly in search of better routes for a maximum score.

Even within the GBA's limitations, Vicarious Visions managed to preserve clear isometric graphics, smooth character movement, and responsive controls, which are essential for skateboarding games. The levels were adapted and scaled down compared to the console versions but retained the distinctive features of the original maps, and the game also offers multiplayer via link cable for competing with friends. The soundtrack draws on the punk and rock aesthetic for which the Tony Hawk series was known, albeit in a limited form matching the handheld's capabilities. The bird's-eye camera also lets the player follow the entire trajectory of a jump and landing, which helps a lot in an action game built around precise timing.

The GBA port was praised at the time of release specifically for how faithfully it managed to preserve the feel of playing the console original on a small screen, which back then was far from a given. For many players it was their first encounter with the series precisely while on the go, and the game thus helped popularize skateboarding video games beyond the living room. Even with the years that have passed, Pro Skater 3 on the GBA remains playable and fluid, showing just how well a complex action sports game could be adapted to limited hardware.