Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

NA release: 21st August 2001
EU release: 12th October 2001
NA release: N/A
Developer: Neversoft, Edge of Reality
Publisher: Activision
N64 Magazine Score: 90%

Most of what I said about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 still applies here: while this is a perfectly functional port of a PlayStation game, some of the cutbacks – especially the heavily reduced soundtrack – make this more of a “it’ll do if you don’t have a PlayStation” kind of game. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 does bring some new features, such as the manual move to better string combos together (although I found it rarely actually continued a combo when I played) and more consistent levels across the game.

You could also unlock Spider-Man in the game (made possible due to the developers also making a Spider-Man game). It’s interesting to see how licensed characters could be handled back then – he isn’t mentioned at all on the box, he’s just a secret unlockable in the game, just a bit of a bonus rather than something purely done for marketing reasons. One thing of note is that this was the N64’s final game in Europe, and the last N64 game reviewed by N64/NGC Magazine.

Fun

Despite being something of an ugly duckling, and hardly the big-bang exit we’d have hoped for the N64, Tony Hawk’s proves itself to be fairly indicative for the console’s catalogue as a whole – a host to some seriously entertaining gaming.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #62

Remake or remaster?

The remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the best way to play most of the game, but if you want Spider-man (plus some bonus levels), you’ll need to check out Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x on the original Xbox.