Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is a title that many gamers cannot forget, be it willfully or not. By this point in time, the series has been an up-and-comer, a hot new title, a firmly-established series, and a repetitive, iterative franchise. Now, the games have come to be nothing but a fragile husk of their former glory. While interest in skateboarding titles has both waned and been redirected to a newer series, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was at one point in time one of the best games available, for everything from graphics, soundtracks, and straight-up fun factor.

1999 was the year of the original title’s release. While interesting and fun it its own way, its early downfalls were not apparently until the release of its predecessor in 2000. Better than the first in every way, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 showed how much dedication Neversoft had towards not only their brand, but towards skateboarding in general.

The already outlandish list of possible skateboarding tricks from THPS was still available, Neversoft saw it fit to include a number of new grinds (based upon their real-world counterparts), several flashy new special tricks (everything from flip tricks, grinds, to spins and varials), and the all-important manual and nose manual. The inclusion of the manual was the first step Neversoft took towards being able to link together huge chains of moves, racking up massive amounts of points, and sending the game towards an over-the-top extreme play style. Luckily, this was a game or two off into the future.

While the possibilities were quickly becoming enormous, being only the second entry in the series, THPS2 still kept itself quite firmly grounded in reality. Over a dozen real-world skaters were available to use across several levels based on real-world locations. If that weren’t enough, many of the unique named gaps across the levels were close to impossible without leveling up the player’s stats (much like in real life!), like leveling the Ollie stat to be able to land the Leap of Faith gap, or leveling up Speed to clear the Carlsbad gap.

Also new to the series was the inclusion of the Create-A-Skater and Park Creation modes. The character creation mode gave players the chance to build a skater like themselves or any professional or amateur skater they followed to down to their skate style, stance, and even their hometown. Included alongside this new creation tool was a few unlockable skateboarders, one of which being the first of many Marvel characters to come out of Neversoft’s contract to make future Marvel video games.

One of the least-often used features of the game was the skatepark creator. Though limited to a few basic styles of locale, the park creation was a fantastic way for players to build a run to their specifications. Skaters who played the game were able to build a park akin to the quarter pipe and funbox setup they might have had in their driveway, and then hesh on it with their personalized digital avatar. One of my personal favorite things to do was line up huge ramps to see how high my character could be launched into the air.

To add even more fun to the action-packed title, the developers added in even more unlockables and even cheats (a definite last-gen inclusion) that enabled anything from wireframe mode to oversized characters and moon-based physics. Popular amongst my friends was the ability to turn up gravity, allowing only low ollies. In a time before the more realistic Skate series, this was as close as someone could get to real-world skateboard physics. Many levels also had unlockable areas, which became somewhat of a staple in the later games to follow.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 represents everything the series had to offer, even at its peak. Players with outrageous in-game aspirations could see how many objectives could be completed in one run, taking huge launches and racking up three million point combos. Casual fans or skateboarding fans would likely have more fun lining up slick-looking runs and unlocking some of the end-game videos for their favorite pro skaters. All in all, THPS2 is very much the forefather of modern skateboarding games, and an excellent action title for any game fan.

Title: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 Publisher: Activision Developer: Neversoft Platform(s): PlayStation Release Date: September 20, 2000

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Tags: Neversoft, THPS2, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2

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