Pros: This game will suck away the hours like nothing else
Cons: Getting them back is nearly impossible

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater single-handedly pulled the languishing extreme sports genre out of the fire and pulled Activision out of the red ink. This in itself would be an incredible effort, but the simple fact is that it did all that, but it was also one of the greatest games ever made. Activision and Neversoft earned every bloody cent that they earned off of that game. When they announced a sequel, I almost wet my pants in anticipation. Needless to say, my pre-order was placed the day I heard a sequel was in the works. And I do not regret it.

The graphics are typical PlayStation fare. While we're not looking at Final Fantasy quality here, the game definitely has a clean look, and although there is still some pop-up and draw-in, it is negligible considering the incredible gameplay.

Speaking of the gameplay, there have been a few advances since the last game. In the original Tony Hawk, moves were accomplished by holding a shoulder button to turn and tricks accomplished by using the D-pad and the face buttons. In this game, there is a new "manual" move that can be used as a segue between tricks. The great thing about this is that when you use the manual move you can still use your previous tricks in the trick multiplier score. And speaking of score, in this game, the points from the previous game have been replaced with dollars. No reason is given, and there is nothing you can really buy, so I guess Neversoft wanted to make it feel a little more true to life. As if it mattered. Anyway, the manual move is a big help in reaching those really high scores that inexperienced players have trouble reaching. As for the hardcore gamer, it is a refreshing challenge to try to reach the same goals without using the manual move. Neversoft has added the move to make the game more accessible, and while I personally don't use it, I am glad that they did, as it means younger and less skilled players can still have a lot of fun with this title.

New parks have been added, in addition to the return of a few older ones. There's even a brand new create-a-park mode. You can create a skating park using a simple interface and save it to your memory card, and bring it to other people's houses to play, or even e-mail it to a friend using a DexDrive (sold seperately). This allows incredible replay value. My favorite track that I have created is a huge, 30- or 40-story high, ver, very steep stairway with a railing that I try to grind on for as long as I can. It's really fun, because when you've blasted through the games challenges, you can create challenges of you own; therefore, the game never becomes too easy. You'll be playing this for years to come.

This time around there is even a create-a-skater mode. While it's all external, it's still a lot of fun, as with a little time and patience, you can be watching Woody Allen or Abraham Lincoln kickin' tricks and takin' spills. There are also secret characters, the coolest of which is Spider-Man. He comes complete with his own web-slinging moves that are unique to his character. Don't expect to be playing Spidey as soon as you take off the shrinkwrap, though. You'll have to complete many, many objectives before you can play with this Marvel creation.

The music, thankfully, is also much more balanced than in the previous game. Because Neversoft knew this game would be a definite hit, they hired high-profile bands to preform tracks for this game. You'll recognize hits from bands like Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Bad Religion, and Papa Roach as you're twisting off the air, or, in some peoples' cases, kissing the pavement.

There are even new multiplayer games. There's the skater's version of Tag, where you have to bash into each other until someone takes a spill; the standard "Horse" game, where each player takes turns landing the sickest tricks possible until someone fails to match or beat the score of the previous trick; and there's the graffiti mode, where each player performs a trick on as many different locations as possible. Each game is unique and fun, so this game manages to hold its own not only in the single-player mode but in the multi-player mode as well, a feat only previously accomplished by Soul Calibur. This is a welcome change from the only two multiplayer modes in the original game.

Bottom line: if you hated, hated, hated, the first game, then you should avoid this. But if you had even the slightest interest in the first one, then get in your car right now, head to a store, and pick up a copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Don't bother ordering it off of the internet; even overnight delivery makes you wait too long.