Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

The Good
The bestselling sequel to the bestselling skateboarding game of all time is...even better.

I wanna get something right off the bat here, folks, THPS2 is NOT realistic. If you're expecting to grind the length of a highway overpass and do 540 Kickflip McTwists on flat in real life, it ain't happening. The biggest rival of the Tony Hawk series, Thrasher: Skate & Destroy, boasts a more realistic engine, but it's not nearly as fun.

And fun is the best way to describe THPS2. The strength of the game is in the sheer fun of knowing that almost everything you can see in the game, you can interact with. Wanna grind that staircase? Ollie off the airplane? Plant that taxi? Go for it! Neversoft has created a beastly game engine, and the control is very tight, and allows for even the least gifted of gamers to jump in and learn the scheme quickly.

The main refinement to gameplay is the manual. Basically a wheelie, the manual lets you continue combos a short distance over regular ground, allowing you to link grinds and wallies for insane scores. Also, several new skaters and tricks have been added. The parks are large and well designed, with secret areas usually unlocked by grinding a certain object. The career modes have changed, instead of collecting videotapes, you have to accomplish a set of tasks ranging from the standard (score 50,000 points) to the tricky (kickflip over a certain gap) to the positively weird (ollie the magic bum 5 times) for cash, which can be spent on pumping up your skater's attributes, buying new tricks and decks, and of course unlocking new levels.

Graphically, THPS2 is not that big a jump from the original, with slightly better textures and more detailed skater models. The create-a-skater feature is a nice bonus, with many different styles possible.

All the sounds are very dead-on. The soundtrack, which was alternative punk in the original, is much more diverse, and features some old-school hip-hop (Public Enemy) along with the more mainstream rock (Papa Roach, Rage, Powerman 5k). Very nice.

The pick of the litter, however, is the Park Editor by a landslide. You are given a large blank space set in one of four themes, and you can place half-pipes, quarter-pipes, rails, funboxes. pools, benches, just tons of stuff. The choice of pieces may seem limited at first, but Neversoft helpfully includes OVER 60 sample parks, all made with the editor. You can even go so far as to customize gaps, that you have to grind through, manual through, wallride, or of course fly over. DexDrive owners, rejoice!

The Bad
Well, for those of you who are into realism, prepare to be burned.

As for some more concrete objections, the two-player modes are fun, but due to the limitations of the PSX, the framerate takes a serious hit, pop-up becomes abysmal, and entire sections of the level are walled off or missing (go to the Bullring to see what I mean). THPS2 is just not all that fulfilling in its multiplayer.

The addition of the manual has skewed the game heavily towards street skating. You can use the manual to extend grinds and wallrides indefinitely, but once you take a combo to the ramp, that's that. Vert skaters have no hope of reaching the insane point totals grinders can. When it come to racking up the points, Tony Hawk is one of the worst characters in the game. That ain't right.

Also, the create-a-skater will only create males, a but puzzling when Elissa Steamer is a selectable character. Meh.

And finally, this game is a bit on the high side of the difficulty curve

The Bottom Line
Lots of arcade-type skating fun, with many improvements over Tony Hawk 1. If you liked the first one, and you damn well better have, pick this one up.

The Good
It's a classic game. It has unique gameplay; it almost could be described as it's own genre, because of the blend between RPG (gaining stat points) and sports (skating). The Dreamcast version is excellent in comparison to the N64 version, because of the advantage of the Dreamcast's graphical capabilities (fogging distance is much farther, for instance). Controls are about the same, and the content within the game seems to be the same.

The Bad
The in-game music can get repetitive. Also, there isn't any option to create a female custom character.

The Bottom Line
It's worth playing, definitely, if not just to see what it's like. It makes an interesting blend of the sports/RPG genres. It also makes for a good couple of multiplayer rounds; nothing to keep a party together, mind you, but a good distraction for a couple of minutes.

The Good
Controlling the character is a breeze (especially if you have a controller, I recommend any of the Microsoft products). There are so many things you can do here, especially when you have such an easy “Build a park” system to muck around with. And although there are all those tricks to perform, it’s getting all those hidden tapes that make this title such a great challenge.

The Bad
Beginners will find it hard to perform some of the bigger tricks, but practice always makes perfect.

The Bottom Line
Finally a great skateboard title for fans of the sport (and all those people that have always wanted to take it up, but didn’t want to get hurt trying). One of the best translations from console to PC that I have seen for some time.

The Good
This is the only skateboarding game I have, but it is one of the best games I have ever played . First off, this is the Nintendo version of the game, so some content was cut out, but I'll talk about that later. The gameplay consist of various modes, like free skate, career, single session, park editor, and multiplayer. I never played multiplayer, but all the other modes are solid in design. Career plays out that you have to collect certain items,or scores in two minutes to unlock new levels and characters. Park editor lets you make your own park to tear up as you preform kick flips before eating it as you fall flat on your..well...trying to land that ever elusive trick that lets you unlock that last character or board you want. Free skate lets you roam free in the levels unlocked in career mode with no time limit. I can't remember much about single session except that it was like free skate. The level design is well thought out and sometimes very challenging. Now on to the graphics. Good,but I've seen better. The levels have more than enough draw distance to see where you are going, even in the outdoors levels. That is quite a feat considering this was originally a playstation game, and that the Nintendo 64 has a bad habit of a short draw distance. The sound is a little lacking. The music sounds quite good considering this a cartridge. It sounds almost as clear as a cd ! The sounds of things like the skateboard wheels, the level noise, and the wipe outs are very satisfying. The con-trolls are tight with the analog stick, but more precise with the directional pad. This game also lets you create your own skater , with tattoos, different clothes , shoes , and various other things . Plus Spider man is an unlockable character ! If that doesn't make you want this game something is wrong with you ! And on a final note, there are tons of unlockable stuff ,ensuring that you'll come back for more !

The Bad
The songs in this version have been mixed shorter than the other platforms because of the media limitations. The create a skater mode while good, should have had better looking skaters. They are very blocky in the face and particularly ugly. And this game requires the expansion pack AND the memory pack ! And my memory pack erased all of my save data and now I have to start all over again ! And the create a park mode is a little cumbersome.

The Bottom Line
If you love EXTREME sports games, this a definite buy ! If you don't, get this and your mind will be changed. If you want the Playstation version, well , go ahead ! It has more songs anyway.

The Good
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is an extremely fun game. Although it was made too much like a game, hardly realistic at all. Which if you don't mind moving 60 m.p.h. on a skateboard is fine. For it's lack of realism it gives you many many tricks, a custom skater editor, and a level editor.

The game is really at it's peak when played with a friend with one of the built in multiplayer games, my favorite is graffiti. In graffiti you ride around, doing tricks on elements in the level, and you claim it. If someone can beat the score you got when you claimed it, then they take control. Whoever has the most stuff claimed at the end of a certain time period, they win. There are a few other modes as well, such as tag, and horse.

The Bad
There is really a lack of realism as mentioned above, your skater moves too fast and does not have to propel himself in anyway... he just kind of moves.

There are some bugs in the game that make you press reset, for example with my custom skater I fell in a pool, and my character got into a "superman pose" and moved around the pool and could not get up.

The career mode starts when you're already pro, skating in parks instead of on the street like mostly all pro skaters started. The soundtrack features several sold out rap, and pop rock groups, and gets annoying after about 3 or 4 sessions of the game.

The Bottom Line
If you want a skateboarding game try Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, if you want a skating simulation that makes your skater seem human buy Thrasher: Skate and Destroy. The only thing I found replayable about this game are the multiplayer games, and even those get old.

Despite all of the hype it's gotten from the press, and maybe some of your friends, I do not recommend buying this game. Borrow it from someone, rent it, steal it... Just do not buy it.