In 3Xtreme, the players take part in specific events using
skateboards,
BMX or
inline skates.[2] With the simplistic nature of each stage, the focus is on doing tricks instead of pure driving.[3] There are more than 22 courses,[4] mostly taken from 2Xtreme.[5] They include parks, subways, mountains and islands.[4] Each trick, for which
Dave Mirra and
Andy MacDonald did
motion-capture, can be linked into combos.[4] Some of them are rail slides, board grabs and 360 degree turns.[6]3Xtreme rewards doing trick moves as good as possible by giving points, judging by how well they were performed. They can be used afterwards to upgrade the vehicles.[7] The game contains several modes: exhibition (is used to prepare for the race against the opponents), freestyle (competition in who gets the most trick points), and season (playing through three circuits which unlocks some equipment and extra tracks).[8]
Development
3Xtreme was developed by
989 Sports, with Ed Loonam as the
product manager. The idea was to incorporate the speed pace from
ESPN Extreme Games, while keeping some fighting elements from
2Xtreme.[6] Unlike the previous games in the series which used sprites, every in-game object was fully polygonal and all tracks were designed to be longer.[6][3] The vehicles were based on real-life models from several manufacturers, such as
Trek Bicycle Corporation,
K2 Sports,
GT Bicycles and
Tum Yeto.[6]
Sony spent millions of dollars marketing the game.[9]
The game received unfavorable reviews according to the
review aggregation website
GameRankings.[10]Next Generation said that the game was "yet another formula 'don't do much for the sequel, because they're gonna buy it anyway' production."[18]
Notes
^In Electronic Gaming Monthly's review of the game, one critic gave it a score of 4/10, another gave it 3/10, and the rest gave it each a score of 1/10.
^In GameFan's viewpoint of the game, one critic gave it a score of 51, and the other 54.
^GamePro gave the game three 4/5 scores for graphics, sound, and fun factor, and 3.5/5 for control.