I knew Tony Hawk was a great Twitter user, but did you know that he was a…pro skater too?
It was September 2000, and I was starting my senior of high school. The world was dominated by boy bands, a lack of 9/11, and one Anthony Louise Hawk, who had done the impossible and made extreme sports cool to nerds. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was a phenomenon, and THPS2 improved on the original’s formula in basically every way. More parks, more skaters, more customization, more punk bands – it’s a masterpiece. Realistically, you probably already knew that.
In short, each level comes with a handful of goals and hidden items, and gives you two minutes to do them. You don’t have to do all of the goals in one run, and can restart a run whenever you need to. There’s a good amount of exploration, cool set pieces, and totally rad tricks at your disposal. It’s great.
Having said all that, what’s a reviewer to do to further discuss a game this ubiquitous? Well, instead of detailing a game you probably know, let’s instead talk about the epic and beautiful story of the skater I created. World, I’d like you to meet Skaty Gunderson:
Skaty is six years old, has a cool afro, and is the best skater in the world. He’s won every major competition and pulled off every skating trick in the book, never once having to settle for a “sloppy” roast beef. He even kickflipped TC’s Roof Gap, a feat so powerful that only the Constitution itself kept him from being immediately named President of the United States.
Unfortunately, Skaty was skating around New York one day and was hit by car.
He was fine, it was just pretty unfortunate. He fared about as well on the subway tracks.
Eventually, Gundy became too powerful. His heelflip-to-stalefish moves defied the laws of physics. He ollied over every magic bum. He found 250 bucks. He was unstoppable.
Then suddenly, at the height of his powers and with world governments in his gnarly grasp, Skaty retired, leaving the whole world desperately wanting more. Either that or I got tired and went to bed. Take your pick. Will he be back? Probably.
The Dreamcast version of THPS2, by the way, leaves a bit to be desired here and there. The load times can be rough, and the music sometimes cuts out inexplicably, making some runs lack a big part of what makes this series memorable (this may just be my copy or something like that, to be fair). Even then, it’s still a remarkably fun time, and one I won’t hesitate to recommend to anyone. That feeling of “okay, let’s get one more goal” is as present now as it was nearly 20 years ago.
For its 100th issue in 2001, Game Informer named THPS2 the 4th greatest game of all time. That definitely feels like a stretch in hindsight, but in terms of the true upper echelon of video games, it’s hard to argue against this being part of that discussion. It arguably isn’t even the peak of the series, as THPS3 added even more goodness (depending on how you feel about linking tricks with manuals, I suppose). The series strayed from its basic, 2-minute-run roots after that, with varying degrees of success.
Next week’s game is a generically-named, unlicensed NES title I don’t understand. So that might be fun (spoilers: it probably won’t be).