DESCRIPTION

As the sequel to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 expands and builds upon the features that made the original so popular. Keeping the third-person 3D action intact, the game lets you play as one of 13 professional skaters as you strive to become the best of the best. You also have the option of constructing a virtual you in the newly added Create Skater Mode.

While eight different skate parks have been included, the Park Editor will have you creating your own designs and testing custom-made obstacles. You can now build parks for practicing various maneuvers on your own terms. Additionally, skateboarding options have been added including manuals that balance the board towards the nose or back, allowing you to string multiple tricks together into extreme combinations for maximum points.

The single-player modes found within Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 consist of Career Mode, Single Session and Free Skate. Starting as a novice skater, the Career Mode focuses on improving skills and earning money. Once you've obtained some cash, you can purchase additional tricks, equipment, and increase statistics; your overall earnings will also unlock new levels and challenges.

For a quick skateboarding fix, the Single Session gives you two minutes to achieve a high score on an unlocked level. On the other hand, the Free Skate mode offers unlimited time for honing skills and exploring the intricacies of any given level. In addition to the aforementioned modes, there are two-player options including Graffiti, Trick Attack, Horse and Tag.

Graffiti mode is a split-screen competition to see which player can execute advanced tricks off the most obstacles. Performing tricks off any given obstacle results in a tag; if your opponent performs a better trick off the same obstacle, the tag is stolen. Whoever has the most tags after the time runs out is the winner. The Trick Attack mode simply focuses on who can score the most points in varying amounts of time.

Bringing the classic basketball game to the skating realm, Horse involves matching or beating successful tricks; if a player fails the matching trick, he or she receives a letter. Whoever spells "Horse" (or a word of your choice) first is the loser. Finally, the Tag mode will have you trying to avoid becoming "it". You can weaken your opponent by executing tricks and tagging them if they're vulnerable. When time has expired, the player tagged as "it" loses.

Incorporating signed punk, ska, rap and metal bands, the soundtrack includes Papa Roach, Rage Against The Machine, Anthrax and Chuck D, Bad Religion, Naughty By Nature, POWERMAN 5000, Millencolin, The High and Mighty featuring Mos Def and Mad Skillz, Dub Pistols, Lagwagon, Styles of Beyond, Consumed, Fu Manchu, Alley Life featuring Black Planet, Swingin' Utters and Born Allah.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 also includes a playable demo of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX. Saving progress requires one block of memory card data, and one block is also needed for each custom-designed track. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 includes support for the Dual Shock Analog Controller for analog control and vibration feedback. ~ Gregory Berger, All Game Guide