Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x

"Halfway decent, except for that godforsaken Xbox controller..."

Here we go again, another Tony Hawk game. This time, it is Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2X, the collection of THPS1 and THPS2. Personally, I think it really took a lot of the Tony Hawk pizzazz out, but since it is Tony Hawk, and it’s for the Xbox, it can’t be too bad. Also, along with every level from the first two Tony Hawks, this game has 5, count ‘em, 5, new levels. Let’s begin!

You can tell that this game probably was rushed in order to be an initial release for the Xbox. The graphics, while fully exhibiting the power of the almighty Xbox, really are choppy at times. Also, since there isn’t a whole lot of room to improve on the last generation of consoles, they aren’t too terribly better. In other words, if you have the first two on Playstation, don’t expect this game to blow them out of the water graphic-wise.

The soundtrack is the same as THPS2, but that’s a good thing. The music, while it starts to get monotonous after a while, is one of the better soundtracks I’ve ever heard blaring from a video game. Papa Roach, Powerman 5000, and Rage against the Machine are some of the kind of stuff you’ll be hearing. The sound effects are pretty much the same as the ones you’ve gotten used to all those late nights playing the original Playstation Tony Hawks. Also, one thing I might add is the fact the sound is a little less blurry than on the Playstation. The Xbox makes it come out more or less as good as you’d expect on a stereo.

There isn’t the same incredible game play you’d expect from a Tony Hawk title. It has nothing to do with the game; it’s all about the fact that the Xbox has the worst controller I’ve seen in my days of video games. It’s a lot like a Dreamcast controller just the buttons are arranged just a little closer together. So in other words, you’ll be hitting the grind button when you need to hit the grab button a lot, and vice versa. You would think that after getting used to it, it wouldn’t be a problem, but still I seem to do quite a bit. Other than that, the controls are the same great Tony Hawk ones we’ve gotten used to. I don’t know if I should hold the controller’s mistake against the game, but it is very annoying.

Replay value can be either very high, or very low. Anyone familiar with the first two Tony Hawks knows that they had a lot of replay value. In other words, someone totally new to Tony Hawk won’t be able to put this game down for a while once they get into it, but since I played the first two until my eyes bled, this game is already old and stale. The new five levels really don’t make this game new and fresh, they only make it another half hour if you want to totally clean out the game. If you have really played the first two installments in this series to death, wait until Tony Hawk 3 hits the Xbox.

Well, the question To Buy? or To Rent? is not really fully applicable here. It’s not a question of whether or not this game is worth buying, it is a question of whether or not this game is worth buying an Xbox to play it. The answer is no, this is not a system seller, especially with the first two available for cheap on the PSX. But, if you just so happen to have an Xbox, since this game is one of the few available right now for it, this game’s probably worth a shot.

Most of the problems have to do with the Xbox, and the fact that the people who transitioned this game to the Xbox. If the controller wasn’t so awkward, and if the people who made it available for the Xbox would’ve took their time, this game would get a 10. But as it is, this game has some problems that should have been ironed out. Please, right now, write an angry letter to Bill Gates and say that his Xbox controller sucks. Oh, well, there’s always THPS3 for the PS2…

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/01, Updated 12/29/01