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"THPS2....to buy, or not to buy?"

Well, ladies and gentlemen, here we go. The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater provided me with lots and lots of fun. It's the kind of game that you can sit down and play late into the night. It has aliens, huge arenas, and a fat policeman who can SKATE!!! Heck, the original THPS
was probably one of the best games ever for the N64.

Now, PSX fans got their THPS2 fix a LOOOOOOOONNNNG time ago. While us poor N64 owners sat, foaming at the mouth and wondering why, oh why, Activision didn't grace them with THPS2's presence.

Well, it's finally here. Was it worth the wait? Yes.
Should you buy it RIGHT NOW? Maybe.

We'll begin with the nice, fun bits. The things that make THPS2 a GRAND game.

To start off, we see all the ol' THPS faves, along with a few new skaters. And add on to that the excellent new Create-a-Skater feature. Mucho fun.

And the LEVELS. Mein Gott. Y'know how the original Tony Hawk had those nice, big levels with lots of fun things in 'em?
Tony Hawk 2 takes those levels and Super-Sizes 'em. Compared to the second's sprawling levels, the originals look claustrophobic. Well, the Hangar's pretty small, but it's got lots of nice vert ramps and grinding to make up for that.

The controls I can't complain about. Same old Tony Hawk everything. And this time you can customize your tricks!! Fun.

I have mixed feelings on the new cash system. It's fun, yes, but it can be frustrating at times. Especially when you have to buy your stats. And it gets really hard to earn. It's a pain, after a while.

The career mode's sheer amount of objectives and its level of insane difficulty pissed me off. You shouldn't have to do all that crap!!! Especially when without cheats, it's next to impossible on many of the levels!

The one thing that REALLY bugged me was the music.
THEY BUTCHERED THE MUSIC. They took little cutlets of some good songs, and censored the HELL out of them, and mixed them with rap. No good.

They took any and all meaning out of ''Guerrilla Radio, and turned into something that made Rage sound they were hocking up hairballs. If they were going to censor it that horribly, they shouldn't have even included it. And they tore apart ''When Worlds Collide,'' which mystifies me. Add that to the fact that none of the PSX tracks made it onto the N64, and the music displeased me intensely.

So here's the rundown...

Graphics: 9/10. Aside form the Fountain of Idiocy, there are a few other graphical flubs...like the Create-a-Skater's hair, and the graffiti ALL OVER was completely unnecessary.

Sound: 10/10. Crisp and clear. Although the music is in its own special category of crapola, the SFX are well done.

Control: 10/10. It's THPS' controls. What more do you want?

Fun Factor: 8/10. While most of it's good, old-school Tony Hawk fun, many of the next-to-impossible objective lists
in the career mode will make you want to take an ax to your 64.

Re-playbility: 7/10. The career mode is an exercise in frustration, but it's still THPS. Which make it fun. And of course, the multiplayer and single-sessions will make you come back.

Music: 2/10. It is censored right to hell and has very few worthwhile tracks. A disappointment.

Bottom Line: It's a good game and a worthy successor to THPS. Give it a rental at the very least. Buy it if you like it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/01, Updated 09/04/01