TONY HAWK MARK TWO (Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (GBA))

Member Name: C_Padd

Product:	Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (GBA)
Date:	02/02/02 (288 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good gameplay, decent graphics, real tricks and people lasts a long time

Disadvantages: None really

With the huge worldwide crazy for extreme sports and popularity of skateboarding that suddenly grew up it seemed to be a good idea to make a computer game of this. And they made a pretty damn good one at that, and put the name of one of the greats in the title. Tony Hawk 2 is the follow up game to the very successful original, and is bigger and better in every way.

There are two main styles of play on Tony Hawk 2, career mode and single skate. The way the game works is very simple in principal. You control the skater and have the ability to pull off as many tricks as you can. For every trick you get points, the longer you do the trick and the more complex the more points you get. Effectively points mean prizes with a high score table to show off your triumphs. Free skate allows you to play any level available for a two-minute time to just simply do as well as you can and strut your stuff. Career mode involves a long challenge with several different levels completing set tasks to advance. Basically there are eight different levels. To unlock each new level you need a certain amount of points or money to advance. On each level there are a series of objectives that you need to complete, which earn you money to spend on new tricks, new boards and better stats. These objectives are like setting a top score, collecting things around the level

The longativity of this game is bone of the real bonuses. The career mode takes time to complete, with lots of things to do afterwards. Each time you finish the game with one of the characters you unlock one of the games cheats. These include new characters, zero gravity, perfect balance and so on, all fun and give an added incentive to keep playing. It does not get boring even with time.

Network play is an area that is available, but I have not yet explored. This is only done over a local network, not the Internet. I have the PC version of the game, though Tony Hawk is widely available on all platfo
rms. One thing to consider is the keyboard is pretty poor to control the skater accurately and it is worth investing in a game pad. No problem on the consuls, very playable game. The gameplay is excellent, simple controls and good graphics. The graphics are not amazing, though an improvement on the original but it runs smoothly and fast. There are three types of tricks, grab, flick and grinds. Each has its own button with the direction choosing which trick you attempt to pull off. The tricks are all to real life and look as they should. There are also ‘specials’ which are harder to pull off and worth more points. All the skaters are also real, this really does give the game a professional look and it is the real McCoy. There is also a lot of music to acompany the game, of course it is the type of music that skaters will be listening to. I dont mind this sort of music, though this may put off some. Well turn off your speakers then.

There is also an option to create your own skater and design your own parks. Both are a lot of fun, messing around with looks and set up new ramps and pipes. It takes time to make a really good home made park, I have not been bothered but it is a nice touch. You can download some of these off the web, worth a look. Making your own skater and then completing the career mode with it will release a new cheat, another new character Spiderman.

Let me get this straight. I do not skate well cannot, believe me you do not want to see me try and the result would be very painful. I can appreciate the skill and bravery involved, though there is a certain lack of realism in the games. The height you get on some of the tricks is spectacular but unrealistic and some of the painful falls you take you simply get straight back up again. Still it would not be nearly as much fun with true to life situations, please don’t try this at home.

This is essentially a sports simulation game and is a top line game at t
hat. The popularity of skating has gone across to all platforms of gaming equally well, and this is a quality game. Clearly the best skating game around, and one of the best sports sims in general. Must for sports fans, and not a bad look in for anyone else.

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