Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 - Video Games - http://maxpages.com/dc422/Tony_Hawks_Pro_Skater

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

Can the best skateboarding game get better? New info and exclusive screenshots show how it's done.

The biggest thing in the world of videogames right now is extreme games, snowboarding, BMX freestyle, motocross, but above all, skateboarding. Snowboarding led the pack with Cool Boarders on PlayStation, and ever since it's arrival, we've seen an endless wave of frail, painfully mediocre extreme games. Until, from nowhere, Neversoft took to the rails with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2. While EA's Street Sk8er was the first skateboard game, Tony Hawk sprang to the top of the heap with a gung-ho physics engine, bite-me attitude, and phenomenal gameplay that surpassed everything in with an X associated with it. In essence, Tony Hawk, already the king of real skateboarders, became the icon of great skateboarding for videogames, and crushed everything else remotely related in its path.
Knowing it had a good thing on its hands, Activision and Neversoft immediately went to work on a sequel. Few times in my life have I wanted a sequel so badly, and now that I have played Tony hawk 2, I know that it's going to take the crown again. Even at this early stage not one skateboarding game I have seen yet comes even remotely close to Tony Hawk 2.

The Skaters
First off, players will get the chance to play 13 real pros, including two skaters who have yet to be announced. The list includes returning cast members Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Elissa Steamer, Rune Glifberg, Jamie Thomas, Geoff Rowley, Andrew Reynolds, Chad Muska, Kareem Campbell, and Bucky Lasek, plus three others.

The skaters look, feel, and play with a lot more individuality than before. While every skater shares basic moves, each is capable of his or her own set of specially tailored moves. In the character select menu you can now change their clothes, such as shirts, pants, shoes, and hats, and you also can swap in helmets, kneepads, and backpacks, all with completely new textures.

More, More, More
Even better than the new individuality, is Neversoft's plans to add not twice as many moves, but as many as three to four times more moves than were in the first. Yikes! New moves mean new animations, which were both accurate and funny in the first game. In this department skaters endure a new set of punishing bails and crashes that will make you wince in pain. Really. The first time we saw some of these crashes, the IGN crew all cringed simultaneously. Blood is still in there in small amounts, and the length of each fall looks to have doubled. And for those freaks who just love specialized pain, several rail-specific crotch falls will show why you why athletes invented the cup.

New moves also imply new combinations of moves, a subject that's become an intense focus for the Tony Hawk 2 team. Where players could kickflip from a tabletop to a rail before, they now can perform 10 times more moves in this sequel than in the first, with huge combinations that blow away the first game's combos. New inverts, grabs, grinds, manuals, nollie and lip tricks fill the blistering game with more power and control than ever before.

One example of the combo capabilities tells the story best. Activision Associate Producer Nicole Willick said that the guys at Neversoft have earned as many as 1,000 points in one single trick. Yup. We saw wallrides on walls that led to grinds (on top of that same wall) to kickflip spins to rail grinds to jumps that led into 720s that led to grinds, and on and on. The courses also have been designed for people to find endless strings of objects to grind and skate on, from street lamps, telephone poles, car roofs, and more.

The big new trick that connects all of the biggest moves is the "manual." Essentially a wheelie or sorts (front or back), this trick enables you to pull off several tricks which, once landed, pop your skater into a whole new set of moves or combos. This essentially stretches out the combinations from about seven or eight in a row to an almost limitless amount. Theoretically, you could pull of 50 moves in a row, earning thousands of points, and keep going, as long as you know where you are going.

For those who played the first Tony Hawk, the controls are still the same, so you can instantly slide into the game. Novices will enjoy the game much like they did with the first one. But with these new moves, combinations, and endless combo possibilities, skilled experts can really stretch their muscles. Willick said that Hawk and other pros are at Neversoft's offices every week consulting on what tricks really work, which ones don't, and how the game could feel more realistic.

Visually, Tony Hawk 2 looks similar to the first, but several improvements have been implemented especially for all you graphic tarts. The biggest improvements can be seen in the texture map department: Every single set of textures has been improved. The skaters, which once looked like they all wore plain shirts and pants, are splayed with new clothes and stuff, from tanktops to backpacks, to new sets of shoes, caps, pants, and earrings. Skaters' bodies are more rippled with muscles, and look leaner, and more realistic. Facial features can be seen and are recognizable this time around, too. And skateparks are packed with little details, from graffiti to moving cars to better particle effects to cleaner, easier to use menus.

Create a Skater
Real skaters are important to providing a deep, enjoyable game, and Neversoft knows it as well as anyone. To balance out the realism of picking your favorite pro, the team has created a Create a Player mode, in which you can delegate points to his or her various characteristics, such as speed, air, balance, etc, and build them up from scratch to become the ultimate skater. You can pick from the existing library of pros and modify and enhance their skill sets or change their clothes, or you can create a player from ground zero and build and enhance their moves, specialties, and trick sets.

Your newly created skater isn't solely locked away in Create-A-Skater mode. He or she can be ported in the Career mode, just like any of the pros, and as you build them up, you can add points to the characteristic slots. The tricks themselves are all there from the get-go, so you can pick any one of them, or all of them from the start. Of course, you can save him or her to memory card and use him in your game or any one else's game, including their customized skate parks.

Skate Park Editor
Customization is an essential addition to Tony Hawk 2, and the create-a-player mode isn't the only way to specialize. Players can create their own skate parks, too. What makes this editor potentially superior to any others is multifold. Players can build their park ON-THE-FLY, with instant graphic objects literally falling into place as they move the cursor around a 3D park.

Using an isometric perspective in a wide open, almost tool-less screen (still in progress), players can place objects on top of one another, side by side, turn them, and add killer towers, ramps, and pools, among other objects. You can also build walls and your own secret areas as well. Another sweet fact is that the parks all save as 1 block of memory. Only one! Damn! You can build walls, ramps and pipes as high as 50 feet in the air.

Real World Courses, Real World Secrets
Those folks familiar with the first Tony Hawk know that the courses were amazing, but none were real. You couldn't find those areas in real life and skate in them. Well, that's changed. This sequel includes killer imaginary tracks, but also features real international courses, including Philadelphia's Love Park, Marseilles Skatepark, Manhattan, and Skate Street Ventura.

Unlike the first game, when you could see an area that looked like you could skate in it but couldn't, in Tony Hawk 2 you REALLY can skate in them. In Marseilles Skatepark a secret area opens up near a few trees, and you fall down a few stories to a completely different set of ramps and obstacles. The game is packed with secret little areas that are subtlely hidden. For instance, if you see a closed chain link gate, with cars speeding by, all you need to is figure out how to get there. The new levels are packed secrets, shortcuts, and just about every single item in the courses are interactive.

Multiplayer mode
The two-player mode had to be one of the first game's most fun aspects. From HORSE to Graffiti to Trick Attack, the game had you pitted against a friend in funny and entertaining ways. Adding to last year's multiplayer games, Neversoft has added a tournament feel that should make things even more fun. Players can now compete in round-robin eight-player competitions. Players also will have the chance to play Tag, and an enhanced version of HORSE.

While Activision specifically didn't mention the bands it has in store, the music is going to be bad-@ss. The thrash-punk sound from the first will return, but adding into the mix are more hip-hop songs as well (Wu-Tang?). There will be as many as 15 song tracks, all changeable in the menu system. We'll have an additional update to the music tracks in the near future.

The first Tony Hawk Pro Skater simply blew people away. It did me. This one is like icing on the cake. Tony Hawk Pro Skater is sure knock out another generation of gamers, but also looks to improve over the first in every single aspect. I feel sorry for anyone else making a skateboard game this year. There is no doubt in my mind that Tony Hawk 2 will be the best skateboarding game on the planet.

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Tommy Smith
Florida	33764
USA
sk8aws1@tampabay.rr.com

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Page Updated Wed Jun 14, 2000 10:18am EDT