Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

"One of the most disappointing sequels of all time"

Ok, before everyone gets all upset, I want everyone to know that I LOVED the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It was a much appreciated break from the doldrums that is known as the video game market. It was original, addicting, and just a hell of a lot of fun. That said, the sequel completely destroys any hopes I had of this budding franchise to become a classic one (you think this is going to be the last one?).

''One heaping plate of pixellation coming right up''

I'm going to ask this right off the bat: Why was this not a PS2 game? Sure, the release for THPS2 would have been pushed back, and the user base would be smaller than producing it as they did for the PSX (launch shortage or not), but we would've been spared the visuals that are found in THPS2.

No, it's not the worst looking game around, but the amount of pixellation is genuinley painful to gaze upon. The poly count in the characters and environments need a little work, and some of the animation looks suspect. This is a far cry from what I expected, even for my 'PSX standards' (which loosely translates into 'mediocre standards').

Of course, the visuals are only strike one. Strike two comes with the...

''Terrible soundtrack''

Yes, any soundtrack with Public Enemy on it gets points (too bad this version of PE's 'Bring the Noise' has Anthrax in it... bleh), but not even Public Enemy can save this horrifically half-assed attempt at a good soundtrack. Where are the Dead Kennedy's when you need them? Instead we get Lagwagon, Powerman 5000, and Rage Against the Machine. At least The Ernies weren't on here, or I may have killed someone.

Anyways, while the first THPS may have had a abover-average soundtrack, this horrid excuse for a sequel has equally horrid audio tracks.

Alright, that's two strikes. Then again, many games have been done two strikes in my book, but then they'd come up big in the area that counts, gameplay, and would hit a homerun. Oh no, I'm afraid this just isn't the case here. In fact, THPS2 doesn't even go down swinging.

''Poor Tony, what has Neversoft done to you?''

Ok, I'm just going to get this out of the way: There's one thing that THPS2 shares with it's original (besides trick and character selection), that's the great control. THPS2 has near flawless control, and I'm glad that the control didn't suffer the wrath of Neversoft (the developer of the THPS series) like the rest of the game did. Kick tricks, grabs and grinds are as easy to perform as ever, and just as unrealistic (they should have really made it so you couldn't do BS anti-gravity tricks like 4 kickflips in a row) as ever.

NS was nice enough to add a few new faces to the first game's bunch, throw in a few new tricks, and give the player a create-a-player function (which is not as cool as it sounds; choices are quite limited), and even have a course editor. They also added two new important gameplay elements: Manuals and wallrides, with manuals making the biggest impact. You see, when you perform a manual, it counts as a grind, so theoretically, you could have an infinite combo. Of course, nothing's that easy, as manuals are quite tricky to operate (you have to balance yourself by pressing up or down), so NS did a fairly good job making it so you can't abuse them... fairly. Manuals are hard to keep going.. a bit too hard. I realize this was a necessity to keep abuse of the manual down, but it makes doing them a bit too hard, and they usually end up being pretty useless, thanks to THPS2's worst feature: The levels themselves.

Look, I know there's a course editor in the game, but I have no interest in making my own, and even if I did, that's absolutely NO excuse to make such piss-poor level design. I mean, it's almost a joke! The worst examples would have to be The School and New York. The School is basically a bunch of wide open spaces, lacking in grind points or places to perform vert tricks, making for maybe the single worst example of level design in a video game ever, and New York just feels like it was slapped together, and not even finished. This is a FAR cry from the first game's BRILLIANT level design (minus the Downhill Jam), and I feel simply insulted that Neversoft would screw it's fans so bad.

Another thing I feel cheated on is how you open up levels. You see, in the first game, there were five tapes in a level, and you needed a fixed amount of tapes to advance to the next level. THPS2 eschews this perfectly fine formula in favor of a monetary based system. Performing certain events (like grinding five bike racks) will gain you cash, which you can buy tricks with. Earn enough cash, and you advance to the next level. Sure, it makes for more mission objectives, but some of he things they ask you to do are ridiculous. I mean, I mastered the first THPS, so why in the world is it nigh-impossible for me to even get half the objectives completed in the second level of the sequel? Well, this is where the extremely shoddy level design comes in. It makes things needlessly frustrating.

So now, besides deriving absolutely no enjoyment playing the levels, the rancid level design actually hinders my ability to advance in the game, because of the laughably sub-par level design. Fantastic.

''This one's about as much fun as wrestling a grizzly bear''

Stay very far away from THPS2, especially if you've played the first. You'll be massively disappointed with it in nearly every aspect, and it will just make you wonder how seemingly impossible to screw up concepts can still be screwed up.

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Pat's suffered a minor concussion after slamming his head against the wall over and over again to relieve the pain that is THPS2, and needed to play Gunbird 2 for over 12 hours straight to undo the damage that has been wrought upon his psyche..

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/01, Updated 03/03/01