However, if you weren’t fussed on any of them you could create your own character instead. Each had their own special tricks along with a specific style.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 featured plenty of real life skaters to play as, such as Bam Margera and Kareem Campbell alongside the man himself – Tony Hawk – with a few unexpected characters you could also unlock. However, the really impressive part was the level design which allowed you to use your imagination to score the big points, as well as climb to some pretty intimidating heights. The addition of easily frightened NPCs who you could knock over was a guilty pleasure I never tired of. You could zip around a variety of places from an unsuspecting suburb to a commercial airport. The levels were brilliantly varied in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Even the thought of trying that makes me anxious. One such example was the “Kickflip Superman”, which saw your skater holding the board above his head whilst in midair.

More ambitious stunts could be discovered as you explored each level, offering up bigger points whilst increasing the risk of you falling flat on your face and losing the lot. There were plenty of tricks to pull off too, and the secret was stringing these together by picking a suitable route around your urban playground. In fact, when this happened (it’s also known as bailing) you could see some blood splatter on the ground. Caution was key however, as losing several thousand points whilst your skater’s face scraped along the concrete was almost guaranteed to get your blood boiling. Numerous goals across a variety of locations formed the Career mode, which meant either collecting items or aiming for some eye-wateringly high scores.

The aim of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 was pretty simple – string together insane combos to score as many points as possible. It was something of a revelation for me and opened up a whole new aural world to explore. The line-up included the Ramones, Motorhead and Red Hot Chili Peppers to name but a few. However, it might strike you as odd that what I remember the most about Pro Skater 3 was the absolutely banging soundtrack. I was utterly hopeless, so like many others I turned to video games where I could safely live out my wildest dreams without the bruises to show for it. To be crystal clear I could never skateboard, rollerblade, or even ice skate.

Basket case tony hawk pro skater 3