Pros: Tight controls, better textures, more interactivity with the environment, addictive game play, more skaters, create a skater, create a skate park, excellent two player modes, awesome music, more tricks, more videos
Cons: I miss levels like the mall which were more linear and had a unique feel to them, some graphics pop-up that wasn't as common in the first game

It's only been a year since Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 (THPS1) came out on the Playstation and hit it huge! Over 1 million copies sold over the various platforms (and saving the bottom line of Activion too), the Hawk ruled. Already we have the sequel to THPS1... can Neversoft and Activision do it again with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (THPS2)?

THPS2 is just as deep as the first game but in reality is just an update and overhaul of minor points of THPS1. What does that mean? The game has the same engine as the THPS1 with the same tight controls and wild tricks. All this means is that Neversoft decided not to fix what wasn't broken! Neversoft tweaked the textures for the graphics making everything seem crisper and cleaner overall. They added a few goodies to THPS2 as well. Overall, we see a game sequel do something very, very difficult...
It is actually better than THPS1!

You get all the skaters from THPS1 and all the modes and options from THPS1 and then some!

Gameplay
Again, the game control is tight and very responsive. If you want to jump/ollie, you press the button and it happens on screen. You're on the vertical ramp and launch up and press the trick button three times with left on the keypad, you see your skater spin and perform that trick three times (that if your skater doesn't bail!) This is one of the tightest controlling games on the Playstation period. Every twitch and button press can make the difference between scoring that mega trick set perfectly or having your skater bail because you lost control.

This really sets up one of the game's objectives. An important part of the game is to score as high as you can... performing a single trick will get you some points. If you perform two tricks, you get a combined score multiplied by two... three tricks increases the multiplier to three, and so on and so forth. If you put spins into your tricks, that trick's score is multiplied as well. If you do some special things, like jump a ridiculously huge gap or take a Leap of Faith (a jump off a floor over the rail to a ridiculous drop to ground in the school level) it counts as another trick. This is the key to scoring monster points! With the addition of the manual trick, you can now make a ridiculous string of tricks to score monster points. There is one catch, each time you do the same trick in a session, the point value decreases. This means you have to do some planning to maximize your score. I've also noticed that speed going into some tricks change the point value as well. Going into a Mute Invert (handstand variation) at a high speed starts with a higher score that doing one at a low speed.

The modes have not changed too much... two player mode consists of HORSE (perform your best tricks), tag (guess!), trick attack (get the highest score!), and Graffiti (most tricks on various parts of a level). Free skate, single level skate, and an improved and way more challenging career mode! Career mode is the only way to unlock the other levels and upgrade your skater's abilities, tricks, and boards! Each level has 10 goals that include:

1) Score set number of points
2) Score set number of points 2-3x greater than first goal
3) Score set number of points 5-6x greater than first goal
4) Grab the S-K-A-T-E letters
5) Find and grab 5 of a single item (pilot wings, subway tokens,
hallway passes)
6) Perform three things (jump three specific gaps, jump three hydrants,
jump three bums, grind three ridiculously long rails!)
7) Perform something special (they'll tell you what it is)
8) Perform something else that's special (they'll tell you what it is)
9) Get the secret tape!
10) Do all the goals above plus collect all the cash on the level

A few of the goal are pretty simple but as you get to the higher levels, it gets really, really hard to accomplish some of these goals!

On competition levels, you have to obtain a medal. To complete a competition level, you need to gain a gold medal and all the cash on the level.

You get all the skaters from THPS1 plus a few more for 13 total (without the hidden skaters and the variations on Tony Hawk's style modes).

Skating My Way!

No... Burger King isn't in the game... but the ability to create your skater and even create your own park is in the game!

In create a skater, you decide the look of your skater from hair, shirt, shoes, skin color, pants, and shoes. Your skater attributes are decided by you as well as your specialty (all around, vert, or street). I might have missed it, but I didn't find anything to change the sex of the skater... I'll look again. Guess what, you can run your custom skater thru the career mode. This is one of the better create a character modes I've seen in a while.

Create your own park... this is one of the best features of this game. You can make just about anything. Create the dream park for a vert skater. You build it, you can play it, you can share it with friends! If it fits in your memory card, sky it the limit. I'm not sure it levels like the Mall in THPS1 and the canyon stage in THPS1 can be made but it seems that you can. You can also create gaps (those feats that appear in blue in the game) and name them your way. This feature extends the life and playability of this game in so many ways!

Bonus

There's also a demo of Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX on the disk as well... So if you want a BMX bike instead of a skateboard, it's all on the THPS2 game disk!

Graphics

Looks like a few pages from the Dreamcast version of THPS1 have come to THPS2. The graphics are crisper and cleaner that THPS1 with deeper textures as well. The skaters have a better look and feel on the screen. The skaters feel like they are a part of the arena. Steamer looks like a female in THPS2 now. Even your created skaters have a good look and feel to them. The levels are highly detailed, even more so than in THPS1.

Camera views of your skater always seem to be in the perfect view and give the tricks and bails a feel of realism and awe. Just because of the camera angle, some bails look and feel particularly nasty and painful. Just watch them again in replay mode and change some of the camera angles... like bails from the Leap of Faith!

More animations have been added as well. There are more bails and skating styles in THPS2. The animation also flows very smoothly. There really isn't any skipped animation frames during play.

There is no slowdown in the engine even in two player mode.

My only quibble with the graphics... there's more pop-up in this game, mostly because of the level design in THPS2. This was less evident in THPS1.

Sounds

This game simply rules! More grinding noises, the sounds of cars, bails, cabbies, trains, police, and even the background soundtracks are simply awesome. Skating on different surfaces will give a different sound as well. Music includes a decent variety of artists from Alternative music and hip-hop. Some of skateboarders' favorites grace this game as well as bigger bands like Rage Against the Machine and Bad Religion.

My only quibble, there are more than just middle eastern and indian cabbies. It seemed a little stereotypical, when I got hit be a car to hear the cabbies talk. It's not just switching between two phrases but instead there are quite a few phrases... it's really a minor quibble that pales to the gameplay and diversity of this game.

Overall

This game simply rules! I really thought they couldn't top THPS1... I was dead wrong. If you liked THPS1, you must buy THPS2. The game should not cost more than $50 before S&H and/or taxes. It's out now. It will sell more than a million copies again. This is the perfect example of how to make a game and a sequel correctly. The only problem is what can they do for THPS3?

I preordered the game and paid $32 with the S&H included! You can check my home page and my savings page for links and coupons you can use to save on your Tony Hawk and Playstation shopping.