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Review
By: |
Hyndsy |
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Date: |
06/27/2002 |
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Released: |
11/14/20012 |
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Publisher: |
Activision |
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Developer: |
treyarch |
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Platform: |
Xbox |
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Rating: |
 |
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One of the very few names that is
synonymous with both the words “pioneer” and “skateboarding” (especially when used
together), Tony Hawk has brought his golden touch over from a sport that has been
thought as “just a fad” and placed it onto something that was also thought of as
“just a fad”…which is gaming. Tony Hawk himself had a big hand in making the original
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater come to fruition a few years back. His sequel, Tony Hawk’s Pro
Skater 2x brings that popular skateboarding game to the forefront of unconventional
sports games once again. This time there are more tricks, levels that are more
challenging and require thinking (Oh my god! A game that makes you think??!) , a lot
more difficult and plentiful challenges. This one will keep you busy for a while.
How does Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x match up |
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against it’s predecessor? This one beats
it with ease. How does it match up against the newer Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3?
That’s another story for another review at another time. THPS2x is an awesome sequel,
but it certainly doesn’t match up to it’s newest sibling THPS3. This is an awesome
game, but you have to remember it is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x, not Tony Hawk’s Pro
Skater 3. Just remember that and you won’t be disappointed.
The release of the Tony Hawk games made a huge impact in the skateboarding world. I
know many real life skaters that say that within reason, the game is for the most part
very realistic. Obviously there are moves that you can do in the game that are impossible
to pull off in real life, but the game doesn’t get away from the realism all that much.
I am willing to bet that if you didn’t have to worry about landing tricks in real life,
that skaters today could pull off most of the tricks you can do in the game…that is the
luxury of video games though. It’s not real life.
The controls for the game are pretty straight forward and easy to learn. You have your basic
four-button configuration (flip, grind, ollie, and grab), as well as the joystick triggers
in the back that allow you to spin. You have your choice of using either the joystick or
the pad to direct your skater. The controls are one of the strongest parts of the game,
because learning them is easy, and learning how to do the more advanced tricks is made
even easier with a simple configuration like THPS2xs. If you want to perform the hardest
and most complex tricks, you need to combine your tricks with one another. It sounds hard
but the controls make that easier as well. The harder tricks require involved button
combinations and pressing the buttons and directions in the right order. Even if you know
how to do the trick, sometimes you might be off by pressing right instead of upwards and
right. At times it can be frustrating, but I like to call that a challenge factor. It
ensures that you won’t always get it right every time you do it, and that is what makes
it challenging. If you liked all the tricks in the original, you’ll love this game because
it has all of those tricks and so many more. You can even assign tricks to certain
customizable combinations that you make yourself. For example, you can buy new tricks and
select what buttons you need to press to make you pull that trick off. This is another
factor in making the game easier for the player. In order to be able to buy your new moves
, you need the Benjamins. To get them, you have to perform tasks and complete levels to
get the dinero you so desire ;-). On top of that, you can also purchase new boards that
are lighter, faster, stronger boards that make your tricks easier to do and pull off,
as well as better stats, such as speed, spin, and air, which all help you in becoming the
best skater in town. Of course, like any other game, there are cheats, hidden sections of
levels, and things like that, but if you want to know’em, you gotta figure them out yourself!
;-) No cheats in this review.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x’s predecessors knew what they were doing when it came to the overall
gameplay for this game. It’s not your standard sport game, it’s actually quite different
, and by keeping the controls the same through all the versions, you are keeping a large audience
and fanbase for the games as well. There is nothing worse than playing a game or two in
a series, and then the controls change. You spend more time learning the new controls, while
unlearning the old ones, it is ridiculous. There are two modes, just like in the other versions.
There is single player and multiplayer. Some of the modes that are available in single player
are single session, free skate, and career mode. I use both single session (which has a standard
2:00 timer for the level) to test my new tricks under the pressure of the clock. If I just wanna
get stupid and trick til I get tired, I jump on over into free skate, where there is no time limit.
After playing the Tony Hawk series games, I still use these, and find them to be very helpful.
When you are all set and want to make your mark on the sport, career mode awaits you. This is
where you come to progress through your blessed skating career. You have various objectives to
reach during the levels and tasks to complete. Once you complete a certain amount of your duties,
levels are opened for you. You don’t get all the levels for free, my friend ;) You must earn them
with that board of yours ;) This is also where you make the money to buy your new stats and boards.
I like to try to dissect the game and come up with a couple new features, usually one that I think
adds to the game, and one that I think the game might be able to do without. In THPS2x, I love
the concept of being able to create your own skater. I have one that looks very similar to myself. I
wish you could change the height, weight, and size of your skater, but you can’t. This is something
that I think they might be able to improve for future versions. All I am asking for is something
similar to the NBA Jam create a player module. At first, I thought the build your own skatepark
editor rocked, but soon found out that it had many limitations. The big one I noticed is that
the skatepark can only be one general size, which I don’t like at all. If they change this in other
versions, it’ll be all good.
Multiplayer is like nothing you have ever played before on a console. You meet at the skateparks
where you and other skaters join to compete in the craziest competitions imaginable. You can
compete in any level that you have unlocked, while at the same time, you can have at least 3
of your buddies including yourself competing for bragging rights. If 4 players isn’t enough for
you, you can link another x-box to yours and have up to 8 players!!! Amazing, huh?? ...Thought so ;)
I was just as impressed as you are right now ;) There are 5 modes, which are perfect for competition.
You can play graffiti, horse, free skate, trick attack, or even tag! My favorite is probably graffiti.
The object of it is to trick of obstacles. If you trick off a park bench and get 6,000 points for
it, that bench turns to your color, which is either red or blue (when you play against one other
person). If your buddy tricks off of it and gets even 1 point more than you, you steal his object
and it changes to your color. It’s a race against the clock and each other! You can play your
standard trick attack which just tallies all of your points and after 2 minutes, whoever has the
most points wins. Sometimes that can get out of hand and turns into a lot of fun. It’s incredibly
addicting, and once you top 200,000 points in just 2 minutes like I did, you have to make even
bigger tricks to top your personal best. Horse is the same as it is in basketball. If your
opponent grinds down a handrail, you must do the same or you start getting letters. Once it
spells out horse, you lose. Tag is also a lot of fun, especially if you have time to burn.
If you just skate away from someone, they eventually will catch you, which adds the twist of you
being able to do tricks to get away from your opponent.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x doesn’t have the graphics of Halo, but it certainly has sharpening its
image from the first. The obstacles are more realistic with their angles, they are less boxy
and morecleans up in look with more shading and greater diversity of colors. Images are clean
and crisp just as in past versions, using the powered up console of the Xbox minimally. Shadows
and clean lines make images and obstacles distinct and detailed, just enough. Taxicabs and moving
vehicles are still the rectangles on wheels but they are just object to grind on anyway. Some fun
graphic areas are the see-through tubes of skate heaven and the disco lights of the london club.
The Xbox has the power to push the graphics envelope if Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x wished to.
But the game has gone with the massive amount of additional features than the graphic improvement.
My views on the soundtrack for the original were that it was fresh, fast paced, and for a video game
it was pretty sweet. THPS2x takes that to a new level entirely. You’ll hear songs and sounds from
a wide variety of genres of music. Expect to hear kickass groups like Rage Against The Machine,
Powerman 5000, Naughty By Nature, Bad Religion, Anthrax Feat. Public Enemy, as well as many other
punk rock riffs that grace this game. At the same time, the sound effects for the game are more
crisp and sharper than the previous game. A good example is rail riding and wall riding. Try it
and if you played the original as much as I did, you will definitely notice a difference in the
sound for the better. The ballsiest thing of all when it comes to the audio is the ability to
rip your own music from your cds and play that while you are playing. It doesn’t matter what it
is, it will play. Now that rocks!
Hyndsy's Rating:
4 out of 5 Planets
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