Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is one of the highest rated games of all time on review websites such as this one, & rightly so. this game is easily in my top 10 PS1 games, at least as of this article. but what i don't get is why, in PAL regions, the first Tony Hawk game was called "Tony Hawk's Skateboarding". but then, for the 2nd game onwards, they just casually switched to the Pro Skater subtitle. but enough of that, because it's time to talk about the game.
well, it starts up with a flashing, overdone, year 2000 skateboarding montage to the song "Guerilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine, which is the perfect way to begin a game like this. & the song is really good, too. for the game itself, the parks look really nice, have a lot to do, & are just the right size so that they're explorable, but compact. there are loads of missions to complete in each park, such as score targets, places to find & perform tricks on, items to collect, that kind of stuff. & it helps that racking up points with various tricks to create combos is so damn satisfying, along with the smooth & snappy controls of your skater. mixed with the fact that you can find & earn money to improve your skating ability, it's all just brilliant. i love the tough, yet fair 2 minute level timer, as it gives the game an arcade-esque challenge, & you can always just retry the levels to complete more missions. & it saves the missions you completed. i honestly find games like THPS4, having no up-front goals on screen at the beginning or level timer, to be too open & confusing for my liking. but yeah, Pro Skater 2. excellent game, & still lives up to the praise it got way back when.