Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

When I picked up my GBA a few days ago there was one game I had to pick up: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. And it's just as good as I expected it to be.

Graphics: If you haven't played the game or seen a video of it yet, then you can't imagine how great the game looks. The screenshots just don't do justice to the game! What I'm talking about is the animation. The skaters have so many different frames. Just try the replay mode and watch it in slow-motion. It looks just as good as the PSone and Dreamcast versions!

There are a few problems though- when the game zooms in during special tricks, your skater looks really fuzzy. It's still a cool effect though. And in the select-a-skater screen the boards don't look like they're supposed to at all. The designs on the bottom of the boards look just like a bunch of triangles in different colors. But otherwise the game looks perfect.

Sound: Another area where THPS2 excels is it's sound. Unfortunately the licensed music from the console versions are gone, in it's place are 10 great tracks to listen to. I really don't think the console music would suit a portable system anyways.

The game's sound effects are also great, they're exactly like the origanal's. Thump, tichh, grind, ouch- everything's there.

Control: Now for the big problem with the game. The controls are really hard to get used to for fans of the console versions. Actually they'd be hard for anyone. I had to change them because I just couldn't get used to the default controls. But for this category I blame Nintendo, for not adding Y and X buttons, like the Super NES controller. It would have made the game a lot simpler to control. But even without the X and Y buttons, you'll still eventually get used to the controls. For me it became second nature after about an hour.

Gameplay: Anybody who's played the other Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's knows what to expect. The portable version plays just like the console version except for the camera view. You now see the game from a bird's eye view, instead of right behind the skater. Vicarious Visions pulled the camera change off pretty well. My only complaint with the new view is that when you go behind an object you become transparent and some times it can look like your on top of the object instead of behind it.

The only other big changes are in the things that have been taken out of the game. There is now only six levels but they've also added a familiar level from the first one- does anybody remember the warehouse? Of course you do. The create-a-skater and create-a-park are gone, as well as the multiplayer. Oh well, Tony Hawk games have always been mainly for one player anyways.