Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, often called THPS2, is the second game in the Tony Hawk's series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2000. It was first released for the PlayStation, with subsequent ports to the Nintendo 64 (by Edge of Reality), SEGA Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance (by Vicarious Visions), Mac OS, and the Windows PC (By Gray Matter Interactive). It was also released for the Game Boy Color, and was better received than the first installment on that machine. In spite of that, it still bore little resemblance to the other versions of the game. The Game Boy Advance version, however, was highly applauded for translating the style and sense of the game accurately into an isometric (pseudo-3D or 2.5D) game. It was re-released and remade in 2001 as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X. On April 1, 2010 a remake (downscaled from the PC version) for iOS devices was released.

Gameplay
It features the series' trademark open-ended gameplay, in which the player (playing as a professional skateboarder) completes a number of missions which result in cash rewards. With money gained, the player can then purchase skill improvements and better skateboards. It was the first of the Pro Skater games to feature Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, now staples in the series.

Some levels in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 are designed for the player to complete a set number of tasks in two minutes. Such tasks include finding the S-K-A-T-E letters, high scores and finding a hidden tape somewhere in the level. Each of the non-competition levels contain ten tasks for a player to do. The other type of levels are competition levels.

Manuals
THPS2 introduced manuals - a ground breaking move that allowed players to connect different tricks in combo on flat. Default Manual and Nose Manual tricks were assigned to Up+Down and Down+Up combinations, which became standard in the series. Also special manual tricks appeared, such as Casper, Anticasper, etc.

Switch Stance/Nollie indicator
THPS2 focused a lot on skater stance so now player had the ability to toggle Nollie and Switch, which affects trick score. Switch toggle animation looks like somewhat that will be known as Revert later.

Manual balance bar
While balancing in a manual, player can see a balance bar. However, rail and lip didn't provide this.

Additional grind tricks
Default grind tricks are predefined in THPS games and in THPS2 it took its final form, introducing Feeble, Overcrook, et, which will remain as default onwards.

Cash system
Every goal in carrer mode is awarded by some amount of cash. Also some collectible cash icons are located all around the levels. There is Tony Hawk's photo on the cash icon. Player is allowed to spent it on stats, tricks and boards. Maximum legal cash amout is $150,000. However there is a cheat that gives $900,000 to every skater. Cash system will see its return in THPS4.

Create-A-Skater
This feature allowed to customize skater's appearance.

Park Editor
This feature allowed to create player's own basic skatepark. It also came with a bunch of pre-made levels by Neversoft.

Levels

 * Hangar, Mullet Falls, MT
 * School II, Southern CA
 * Marseille, France
 * NY City, New York
 * Venice, CA
 * Skatestreet, Ventura, CA
 * Philadelphia, PA
 * Bullring, Mexico
 * Skate Heaven, Outer Space
 * Chopper Drop, Hawaii

PC & iOS Exclusive
 * Warehouse
 * Chicago
 * Downhill Jam

Xbox Exclusive
 * Construction Site, Dallas
 * Club, London
 * Skate Park Tampa
 * Subway, New York
 * Sky Lines, Detroit

N64 Exclusive
 * Hoffman Factory, Oklahoma City, OK

GBA Exclusive
 * Rooftops, Boston (GBA Only)

Soundtrack
The following songs are from the original PlayStation release. Other versions may vary.

Korean release
To promote the game it was released in Korea featuring korean pop band FIN.K.L. as additional four playable skaters and 8 additional songs of the abovenamed band. No other differencies were noticed.

Unused content
Several versions of the game contain following unused content:
 * THPS1 levels.
 * Beta Freeway level.
 * Rasta Guy skater model.

Reception
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 met with a tremendous amount of critical and commercial success. Due to its almost universal high ratings THPS 2 was the highest rated game of the decade from its release until 2010. As of January 2010, it is the second best scoring video game ever reviewed behind The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarnia Of Time according to Metacritic. According to GameRankings, it is the twentieth best scoring video game ever.

The PlayStation version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 has earned Platinum awards from gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. Because of this, it is the only game in the magazine's history to ever have earned a Platinum award twice (but is only acknowledged as a single game in EGM's records due to the game receiving a 10 from only one reviewer as opposed to the PlayStation game receiving 10s from all 3 of its reviewers). The PlayStation version of the game received a 10 out of 10 from the magazine Game Informer, while the versions for other consoles received lower scores. The Game Boy Advance version received particular acclaim for being an accurate translation of the series.