Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Developer(s)	NeverSoft Aspyr Media (Windows Mobile edition) Edge of Reality (N64 port) Vicarious Visions (GBA port)
Publisher(s)	Activision
Designer(s)	NeverSoft and Tony Hawk
Engine	Rewrite of proprietary Apocalypse engine
Release date(s)	2000
Genre(s)	Extreme sports
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	America ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Xbox (as THPS2X)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is the second skateboarding game in the Tony Hawk's Series. It was developed by NeverSoft and published by Activision in 2000. It was first released for the PlayStation, with subsequent ports to the Nintendo 64 (by Edge of Reality), Dreamcast (by Treyarch), and Game Boy Advance (by Vicarious Visions), Mac OS, and the Windows PC. It was also released for the Game Boy Color, and was better received than the first installment on that machine. In spite of that, it still bore little resemblance to the other versions of the game. The Game Boy Advance version, however, was highly applauded for translating the style and sense of the game accurately into 2D. It was also renowned for being "the world's first handheld 3D game.", however, Faceball 2000 was in fact the first handheld 3D game.[citation needed]

It was also the first of the Pro Skater games to feature Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, now staples in the series. The levels from this game (and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) were included in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x with revisions. Also 5 additional levels were included.

Game Informer named it the 4th greatest video game of all time.

1 Gameplay
2 Levels
3 Hidden Levels
4 Skaters
5 Secret Skaters
6 Soundtrack
7 Nintendo 64 version
8 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X
9 External links

[edit] Gameplay

It features the series' trademark open-ended gameplay, in which the player (playing as a well-known professional skateboarder) completes a number of missions which result in cash rewards. With the cash, the player can then purchase skill improvements and better skateboards. THPS2 was also the first game in the series to introduce the manual, a skateboarding trick where the performer balances on his back two wheels. This enables players to string together trick combos, often resulting in hundreds of thousands of points. It was also the first in the series to include the Noseslide.

Some levels in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 are designed for the player to complete a set number of tasks in 2 minutes. Such tasks include finding the S-K-A-T-E letters, high scores and finding a hidden tape somewhere in the level. Each of the non competition levels contain 10 tasks for a player to do, each task rewarding a player with cash. Cash is also scattered around the levels in order for players to find, increasing the use for replaying a level. Once a player has enough cash, they can continue on to a new level.

The other type of levels are competition levels. This is first seen in Marseille, where a player must perform tricks and get judged on. The rating by the judges that a player receive is based on, how much they score, variation of tricks, bails, and how much of the level they have used. The judges give scores based on this criteria, the highest and lowest are taken away, and the 3 scores are given an average. There are 3 runs total and the best 2 count. Competition levels also contain cash hidden for a player to collect.

[edit] Levels

Hangar, Mullet Falls, Montana
School II, Southern California
Marseille, France (Competition)
New York, New York
Venice Beach, California
Skatestreet (Ventura, California) (Competition)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bullring, Mexico (Competition)

[edit] Hidden Levels

Skate Heaven
Hoffman Bike Headquarters (N64 only)
Hawaii Chopper Drop (not Present in N64 version)
Downhill Jam, Phoenix, AZ (from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater)
Skate Park, Chicago (from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater)
Warehouse: Woodland Hills, CA (from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater)

[edit] Skaters

[edit] Secret Skaters

Officer Dick
Private Carrera
Spider-Man
McSqueeb (also known as 80's Tony Hawk)
Mindy

The above characters are unlocked after completing the game a certain number of times, differing for each character. Once unlocked, the player can play the game as normal with these characters. Mindy is featured in the GBA version.

NeverSoft CAS Skaters:

Aaron Cammarata
Chris Rausch
Connor Jewett
Darren Thorne
Gary Jesdanun
Jason Uyeda
Joel Jewett
Johnny Ow
Junki Saita
Mick West
Noel Hines
Nolan Nelson
Ralph D'Amato

Ryan McMahon
Scott Pease
Edwin Fong
Jeremy Andersen
Silvio
Aaron Skillman
Hudson
Darshan Cowles
Kage
Nggdynln
Robert Earl
The Pouncer

The NeverSoft characters are unlocked by entering the character's name into the create a skater function. The skater being designed then changes automatically to the character chosen.

[edit] Soundtrack

Not all of the songs here were featured in the N64 version. Due to Nintendo's then strict policy against explicit content and violence, they opted to remove parts of the songs featured in the N64 version so as to maintain an E rating from the ESRB. Songs that appeared in the N64 version are marked with an asterisk. The Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Color versions of the game used music without lyrics, but none of it was licensed.

Papa Roach - "Blood Brothers"
Anthrax/Public Enemy - "Bring the Noize"*
Rage Against the Machine - "Guerrilla Radio"*
Naughty by Nature - "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"*
Bad Religion - "You"
Powerman 5000 - "When Worlds Collide"*
Millencolin - "No Cigar"
The High and Mighty f/ Mos Def - "B-Boy Document '99"
Dub Pistols - "Cyclone"*
Lagwagon - "May 16th"
Styles of Beyond - "Subculture"
Consumed- "Heavy Metal Winner"
Fu Manchu - "Evil Eye"
Alley Life f/ Black Planet - "Out With the Old"*
Swingin' Utters - "Five Lessons Learned"

[edit] Nintendo 64 version

Originally to be released along with the PlayStation version, but canceled for an unknown reason. Almost a year later the project was resumed, handled by the same company that brought the first Tony Hawk game to Nintendo 64: Edge of Reality. This version includes all of the features from the PlayStation version, including the Create-a-Skater and Park Editor. In addition to visual improvements (less jagged, smooth) like the Nintendo 64 version of the first game, a new level called Bike Headquarters (from Mat Hoffman) was added. Also added were a few new cheats, such as the 10x Point Multiplier and Max Turbo Mode codes. The amount of songs was reduced to six and portions of each one were cut.

[edit] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X was released on November 14, 2001 (only in the US) as a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox. The game contained remade versions of all 19 levels from the first two games in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, 5 new stages, and a LAN multi-player feature.