THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED MEMBER

elementxstyle

elementxstyle

GP Design shop.

QUICK POLL

What's the next big game coming this year?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



PC | Action | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

There is no Boxart for - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 9 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 5.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.4
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.7
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

Review by Brian Wright | 11/24/2000 | 14:47:41 PM PST

When game companies bring console titles to the PC, it often seems like they're serving up leftovers, but when the game is as good as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the leftovers make for a complete meal.

When game companies bring console titles to the PC, it often seems like they're serving up leftovers, but when the game is as good as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the leftovers make for a complete meal.

In THPS2, you shred through a series of locations, from a school in California to the streets of New York, performing tricks and completing goals which unlock new areas and boards and provide cash for buying new stats and gear. The large skating areas offer plenty of opportunities for busting out jumps, grinds, and transfers, and you can access secret areas by accomplishing more difficult tricks.

You can skate as Tony himself or as one of 12 others pros, including Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, and Chad Muska, or you can design your own skater in the Create-a-Skater mode, which lets you customize everything from appearance to tricks.

The graphics are significantly better than those on the consoles, with higher resolutions supported up to 1024x768. The characters look a little blocky, but the skaters sport detailed clothes and faces. Fluid animations show off the massive amounts of tricks and spills in the game. The environments are also highly detailed with enhanced textures, although some unnecessary fogging and pop-up probably could have been cleaned up for the PC version.

The sounds of skating and grinding are backed up by a rockin' soundtrack of punk and hip-hop from bands like Bad Religion, Rage Against the Machine, and Public Enemy. A feature to import your own MP3 files into the game would have been a nice touch, but as it is there's enough music to satisfy most gamers.

Busting out moves is a simple task, provided you have a decent gamepad, and you'll be pulling off kickflips, grinds, and tailgrabs in no time, but the huge assortment of tricks means you'll need some practice before you can master the more complicated maneuvers.

A Park Editor mode adds to the replay value, by letting you design your own parks with the more than 100 included ramps, rails, pipes, and other obstacles, and includes a ton of pre-made parks, as well. The editor can be cumbersome (more mouse support would have helped), but it gets the job done and you'll be laying down pools and setting up gaps with ease. Multiplayer mode allows two skaters to compete in three games over a network (Graffiti, Trick Attack, or Tag) or Horse on the same PC, but there's no support for Internet games.

All in all, THPS2 offers the same sick street skating action as on the consoles with improved graphics. If you're looking to do some seriously fun shredding on the PC, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 won't do you wrong.