The best of the Tony Hawk games and one of the best sports games ever!
As you may have already known, the Tony Hawk games are all about skateboarding of course, and this game doesn't disappoint at all in that catergory!. You've got all the tricks and skate ramps and parks you've pretty much got everything you need here for skating.
Of course, controls are important, and that's why the Playstation version wins here. The D pad is used to move your skater around, and you pull off tricks by pressing either Square, Circle, Triangle, or X. Each button is assigned to different tricks, such as Air, Lip, Grind, and Grab. Each time you pull off a trick, you get points. If you can do multiple tricks all in one, you get more points and eventually it gets multiplied.
Many secrets lie in the skate parks, such as pulling off a certain trick to access a new area, or simply jumping into an area you shouldn't be at. There are also Gaps, which are bonus points that are trigger by using certain tricks in certain places. There are plenty of secrets lurking in this game, you'll definatly need a couple of weeks to finish it.
The main game is the Career Mode, which you have to collect tapes and pull off amazing tricks in the skate parks to get through the game and unlock new stuff. While you're on the Career Mode you earn money and this money is used to buy new stuff such as new skateboards, new tricks, and better stats for your skater. As you would have guessed, Tony Hawk and some other pro skaters are playable here.
Other modes are Single Session and Free-Skate. Single Session is where you have two minutes to pull off as many tricks as you can within the time limit, and Free-Skate is where you skate without a time limit. There's also a multiplayer mode which includes Tag, HORSE, and a mode where you simply fight your opponent (2nd player) for the best score in the park. All these modes are fun, and they're never boring at all!. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 also features loads of cool stuff, such as a Create Skater mode which allows you to make your own skater and play in all of the modes.
There's also a Park Editor which literally allows you to make your own skate park, which is pretty damn fun and simple to use. It is also loaded with loads of cheats you unlock by doing certain things in the Career Mode, and these cheats are almost as good as the ones in Goldeneye! Plus you get a couple of new characters at some point e.g Spider-Man.
The Graphics in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 are simply amazing for a Playstation game. Trust me. When I first saw this game I was absolutely stunned on how the developers made this game look so good for the system. Ok, the characters are still blocky and so are the edges but the rest is indeed top-notch graphics for it.
As for the sound, the soundtracks are wonderfully selected here such as Papa Roach and Bad Religion and others and I didn't have a problem with the music. All the skateboarders make appropriate noises and the environment sounds are pretty cool, such as "Skate on my son" from the sound of God in Skate Heaven. Very cool indeed!
Listen to this. Even if your not a fan of skateboarding or any sports game this is still a must buy for you. I'm not a fan of skateboarding, but this game blew me away! You don't realise how much fun it is, and it's simply one of the best games for the Playstation. If you don't get this, then you're gonna regret it and miss one of the greatest sports games of all-time. You wouldn't want that to happen to you trust me. I've played other Tony Hawk games, and this one is still the best.