Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

One of the most anticipated sequels in recent memory, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, builds on the addictive gameplay of the original by adding many new tricks and features. The idea is still to perform complicated tricks for points, and players can still ride as Tony or any of an expanded roster of pros in the new game. Now, players can create their own skaters from scratch, selecting appearance, gear, clothes, and more. Players can also create their own ideal skate park by instantly building ramps, rails, pipes, and other challenging obstacles. All of the old tricks remain, with hundreds of additions.

With all of the new tricks to master, there are also more detailed accidents: scraped knees, broken boards, and wall and pole collisions. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, with all of its new additions, is basically more of the same stuff that players saw in the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater--which is not a bad thing at all. Those who loved the first will especially love all of the new skate parks, with their hidden areas that can be unlocked by performing certain tricks. For instance, on the first stage, players will have to grind across an airplane propeller to get the thing to twirl, which opens a hangar door. There also are some neat little touches to the levels, like a hall monitor who races around in a golf cart at the high school.

Neversoft, the developer of the first Hawk game, really deepens this installment by challenging players with 10 objectives per level. Now, not only do players have to find hidden tapes and reach high scores by doing tricks, they have to jump certain gaps, as well as collect items and cash. This kept us playing some levels for hours before completing the majority of level objectives--and even then there were some objectives, like achieving a "sick" score, that we couldn't quite manage. The levels are set up to allow some clever trick combinations, and players even can create their own skate parks by choosing from over a hundred props, including ramps, rails, and pools. Also fun is creating a skater from scratch, and determining his weight, attire, and skills, which can be improved by earning cash in career mode.

Like the last game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 dips into the worlds of hip-hop, rap, and punk rock for its soundtrack, although many of the songs are recognizable and pretty old--this loses some of the freshness that the soundtrack had on the original. And that describes the game in a nutshell: not as fresh, but still an extreme amount of fun.

Pros: - More objectives per level than previous game - 13 pro skaters, with different outfits and boards - New Pros and New Tricks - Multiple Play Modes

Cons: - Soundtrack lacks freshness of original - More of same stuff we saw in original

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