Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

"Good showing on the sequel"

While browsing through the games section at a local retailer, I came across Pro Skater a while back and picked it up as a test game. Once I had played through a couple of times, I decided that it was worth keeping. Months later, with the release of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, I've found that a sequel to a skateboarding game, can be one hell of a good thing.

-Visuals 9/10-

Near perfect folks, there is no getting around that. With several new locals to skate through and grind, you're hard pressed to find another game like this. Everything is as real as it can get through a video game, from the tricks, to the boards, to the dreadlock dude in the skate shop. With the amount of tricks that you have, you'll always find something new to look at, and the different poses you get when you smash headlong into the ground.

From the Hanger to the School, and from there to locals around the world, each stage had detail put to it. With the addition of new graphics, you can see the writing on the signs, and the brick layers in the wall...talk about clean and crisp. Where the perfection comes to an end, is in the way of some image break up, and strange camera angles on certain tricks. Unless you're a pro at this, the camera angle switch can screw you up in the middle of a heavy grind.

-Audio 9/10-

For a game that is basically sports, the soundtrack is killer. It adds in some rock, some alternative, a couple of dance tracks, and yes some hip-hop. With some headlining bands like Papa Roach and Powerman 5000, it's really hard to find a game that keeps the tempo, and keep you listening. Each track is lined up through the sound level option, so if you come across one that you don't like, it can always be switched up to listen to something a little different.

The sound effects, in spite of having the music up full blast, come out clean and clear through your speakers. Each bail is emphasised with a sickening crunch and every grind has the traditional metal on metal clashing sound. Tricks landed, and tricks failed, are easily distinguished, so there is no mistake in what you're doing. The down side however, is the lack of continuity on the music, sometimes, it takes a minute for the track to load, and you'll be listening to silence for a few seconds, which can be a downside if you're jamming out, only to have the music stop.

-Control 10/10-

Perfect control. This time around, instead of righting the board for you, you have to do it yourself through trial and error to get the timing down. Some Air Tricks take practice, to know the height you need to be, and the way you need to land. It can get a little confusing, when you think that you're throwing out a heavy combo, only to end it with an impressive trick, and not land right.

Speaking of control, the balance factor in Pro Skater 2 has been greatly improved fromt he first. You can accurately gauge just what you're doing, and how, with a few simple taps of the directional pad to right yourself up on the long haul grinds. This was a major complaint from the first, in which the PSX control was too touchy, and you ended up biffing it every 30 seconds, or you couldn't get the right grind down.

-Gameplay 10/10-

This has just about everything you need, save for Tony Hawk playing with you. Giving you control over some of the most influencial skaters of our generation, you have new skaters in the line up, including Steve Caballero, Eric Koston: The creator of the K-Grind, and Rodney Mullen, the mad dog championship skater. You can't find a better line up than this in a skateboarding game.

The Skate Park Editor is the true gem of Pro Skater 2, in which it gives you the Sim-City like control of creating, and skating a park that you build, at the cost of one memory block per park..so get out your Mega Memory Cards, it's truely a blast. You'll find that, through using the editor, it's very very simple to get drawn into creating your own little dream park. If you're not much of the creative type, then there are about 30 or so Pre-Made skate parks for you to choose from.

Attributes and Boards are no longer earned through points, but through cash. The Cash can be found throughout the various stages in some locations that require you to use certain tricks to get there. Some of these tricks, which are brand new to Pro Skater 2, include the Wall Ride, the Boneless, and Switch position. There are several goals to try and attain throughout each stage, giving you a wide range of things to do. The bottom line here? You need to make the cash, to proceed on to the next level...without it, you can't open up a new stage, you can't buy new boards, and you can't buy new attributes.

Tricks are a big part of Pro Skater 2, in which some of them you have to buy and apply to the skater of your choice. These tricks can range from the most simple, to the most death-defying, and it's up to you to basically customize your skater. Speaking on that, there is a new custom skater option, in which you can choose just what your personal skater can and cannot do. Will they be a Vertical Ramp Giant, or will they be a concrete burning, rail grinding trickster? That is left soley for you to decide.

-Overall 9/10-

While near perfect, it's not. It has everything that a skateboard affectionado would want, and everything a serious X-Gamer would need to play. It's got the tricks, the levels, the goals, the skaters...what else could you want? Filled with several options, the most impressive being the Skate Park Editor, and a killer soundtrack that is nearly impossible to top in a game of it's genre, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 is the gem of the Third Quarter Playstation line-up.

Recommendation: Get this one, it's hard to pass up.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/00, Updated 09/26/00