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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Review

Verdict 99%

When my Wal-Mart put this baby on the shelves nearly one week early, I was the first there to snag it. I immediately took it out of its box, walked over to the furniture section and sat down in a bean bag chair for 30, until I was kicked out. Those 30 minutes were some of the best minutes I have spent playing a game.

Gameplay

No plot, just skate for dough to open new tracks, get new boards and upgrade stats. Along the way you’ll find hidden money, just in case you’re a few dollars short for that brand new Birdhouse board, or an extra point to fill up your stats.

You’ll start off by picking one of the 13 skaters, and then picking a skate park. From then on, it’s your world. Create your own combos, pull of special moves, and grind your way to opening 7 tracks, and some additional skaters like the web-slinging Spider Man.

I can’t stress enough that THPS2 leaves you in control to do as you please. Never are you restricted to one ramp (cough, THPS for Game Boy). You can be in a half-pipe at one point and grinding along a bike rack at another. Hell, why not pull off a combo leaving the half-pipe, and then grind along that same bike rack to rake in some major points? The number of combos you can do is mind-boggling, you’ll pull off moves even Tony Hawk himself can’t handle.

Single Player

Never have I played a game so damn much. Even after maxing out Steve Caballero’s stats, I still had tracks that were missing objectives, or there was still a board that I needed to fill that empty gap in my stomach.

Each course has a set of 10 objectives (Note: Every track has its own objectives, the ones listed may not appear in each track).

  • Collect S-K-A-T-E Found in every level, just roll around looking for the letters of the word
  • Knock Down 5 Barrels, Wall Ride 5 Bells, Collect 5 Spray Cans, Collect 5 Pilot Wings, Collect 5 Subway Tokens, Destroy 5 Crates, Collect 5 Hall Passes Collect or kill the following objects to complete your objective and get your cash!
  • Find The Secret Tape In every level a tape is tucked away for you to find
  • 50-50 Joeys Sculpture, Ollie The Hydrants, Wrangle The Blue Cow, Hit 3 Old School Gaps, 5-0 The Big Rail, Kickflip TC’s Roof Gap, Grind 3 Roll Calls, Hit 3 Hangtime Gaps, Nosegrind Over The Pipe Get big air, grind or ollie over objects to complete these objectives
  • Amateur Score Every level has a suggested score you must get to rank amongst the “amateurs”.
  • Pro Score In every level you gotta get a big score to play with the big guns
  • SICK! Score Again, in every level humiliate Tony Hawk and friends by bashing their scores to a fine pulp.

Multi Player

As much as I know all you guys and girls will want to, you won’t be able to kill your friend in a game of horse in this version of the game. In my opinion, this was one of the better modes in THPS2 for PSX. So if Varicious Visions wants to take this handheld success further, look for multi player action in THPS3.

Visuals

Once you pop this into your GBA, you’ll feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven. This game packs a punch that’ll knock your head off your shoulders. The textures in this game are unlike anything I’ve seen before, it looks just as good as the PSX version. Pictures do this game no justice: They make THPS2 look blocky and believe me this game is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

The game has no slow-down whatsoever, so don’t worry about that taking away from your gaming experience. If anything takes away from the gaming experience it’ll be things like sleeping and eating.

Crisp 3D characters and a nice looking board add to the fun too. Actually seeing sparks fly when you grind a rail or seeing the board flip and twist; heck you can even see blood when you fall! To say the least the graphics are amazing. It’ll make all other GBA games look bad. You might think the GBA isn’t much different than the SNES in terms of graphics, but THPS2 will make you eat your words.

Many complain about the camera angle, but trust me it isn’t that annoying, it losses it’s one single point here though. Just sit down for a minute, get use to the tracks and the camera won’t seem like a problem at all!

Aurals

The moment that the tunes kicked in, I could tell my ears were in for a treat. The sound was much louder then that of F-Zero or Rayman, in fact it puts them to shame. It’s by far the best sound I have ever heard come out of a handheld and it’s about time. So please turn up the tunes and enjoy the offerings.

Although the wonderful music of Papa Roach (my favorite band), Dub Pistols and others are missing, developer Vicarious Visions made sure that you are still rocking with some up-beat punk tunes. I must admit I did find myself humming along or nodding my head with the tunes, that’s just how great THPS2’s music is!

Replay Value

This game lasts. You not only can get your favorite skaters stats up, but another 18 (so far for me) also! Getting gold on the two invite-skates is a hard task and will keep you busy, not to mention completing all the tracks at 100%.

Going back and trying to beat yours or a friend’s best score is also an option. You can also practice getting to hidden areas in free skate mode, or you can just see how good of a score you can bundle up. My personal best is 212,302. Try to beat it!

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