PlayStation 1
Released in 2000 by Activision
Grade: A+
Tony Hawk 2 on PS1 is basically the perfect skateboarding game, or at least the best in the hyper-realistic subgenre of skateboarding that the Tony Hawk series defined, where skaters have superhuman jumping ability, impeccable balance, and effortless technique. If you like spinning high in the air and stringing together 20 tricks seamlessly, this is THE game to play.
Where it falls in the series
On PS1, there were four Tony Hawk games, and the series stepped up to PS2 starting with Tony Hawk 3. Although this game is also available on the “more powerful” N64, Dreamcast, and Xbox consoles, the PS1 version is the ideal choice if you ask me.
Praises
In my review of the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I told you how Tony Hawk is the NBA Jam of skateboarding, making ridiculously impossible skateboard actions seem normal. So, if you didn’t know, this is NOT a skateboard simulation.
The game is a breeze to play. The unrealistic physics are consistent, and you’ll quickly develop instincts for interacting with the environment.
Besides plenty of little refinements to the control, Tony Hawk 2 made the big addition of manuals and nose manuals, which allow the skater to ride on two wheels.
So, after 180’ing onto a rail, popping out of a nosegrind, into a kickflip, into a tailslide, into a heelflip, into a smith grind, over a gap onto another rail for another nosegrind, another kickflip, into a boardslide, and popping off for a 360 melon grab to the concrete 20 feet below, you can then land on two friggin’ wheels and continue your string of tricks. Not realistic, but a hell of a lot of fun.
The thing that really makes Tony Hawk 2 stand out is the level design. Compared to the previous installment’s stages, these ones are larger, more varied, and better looking. Most importantly, they’re spread out just right, with the bowls, half-pipes, quarter-pipes, ramps, stairs, ledges, rails, buildings, and little objects scattered around nicely.
As you go through the stages one by one, there’s great variety. There’s the dark airplane hanger filled with quarter-pipes and ramps. There’s a high school campus on a sunny day offering plenty of opportunities for long grinds. The lush, pinkish France stage has a skatepark feel with wide-open bowls in the middle. Then you’re onto a nighttime skate of NYC, crowded with rails and steps and a secret path to a skater-friendly construction site. Then it’s daytime again in Venice Beach, a multi-leveled stage full of grinding opportunities, obscured ramps, and tricky small areas. The levels seem to get better and better as you work your way to the outlandish mini stages at the end. Finish the game, and you’ll unlock “Skate Heaven,” a mini planet in outer space that’s a downright masterpiece in creative level design.
I’ve played Tony Hawk 3 (on both PS1 and PS2) and Tony Hawk 4 on PS2, and the levels just don’t quite measure up, as if the development team ran out of new ideas.
The thing that keeps you going through stages is the set of missions, such as collecting five S-K-A-T-E letters, clearing certain gaps, and racking up high scores. Each level has about twice as many missions as in Tony Hawk 1, which seems about right. The process of unlocking stage after stage moves at the right pace.
Is that not enough? Don’t worry, there’s a create-a-park mode too! Although it has its limitations in size and types of objects you can plop down, it’s about as easy to use as it can be, and can provide hours of fun if you want to get creative.
The game looks fantastic, making the most of PS1’s technical power. The environments have character, you can see things in the distance, the skaters are distinct, the animations are smooth and cool-looking, and the camera is always in a good spot.
The music is, well, very 2000-ish, mostly upbeat pop-punk with some hard rock and hip-hop mixed in: Bad Religion, Rage Against the Machine, Anthrax with Chuck D, Lagwagon, Papa Roach, etc. So, yeah. Feel free to turn the music off, enjoy the nice skateboard sounds, and play your own soundtrack on your Alexa or what-have-you.
You won’t do better than this. Action-packed, intuitive gameplay with beautiful levels and a well-done mission-based story mode, created before the Tony Hawk games lost their freshness and went with weirder, less fun gameplay formats. It’s the king of skateboarding games.