Collection essentials #573: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x (Xbox)

The first Tony Hawk game came out in 1999. It wasn’t the first skateboarding game, but it was the first one to really “nail it” and proved what a surprisingly great fit skateboarding could be for the video game world, with risk/reward gameplay that proved thrilling even for people who had never given skateboarding a second thought. You can read more about that game in my previous post about it.

With the runaway success of the first game, of course a sequel would be made. And it came quickly, as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 launched almost exactly a year after the first game, in 2000, first on PlayStation, then Windows, then Dreamcast, then Nintendo 64 the following year. You may notice that none of those versions made my essentials list. That’s because this here is the definite version from back in the day. And it’s a rather odd release, too. The third Tony Hawk game came out in as many years in 2001, first on the PlayStation 2, then coming to other platforms a short time later. But instead of simply porting the third game to Xbox as soon as possible as it launched in November 2001, Neversoft instead decided to give Xbox owners their own exclusive special version of the SECOND Tony Hawk game. Tony Hawk 2 seemed obsolete compared to 3 at that time so some found themselves scratching their heads over this move, but it definitely has its own merits.

Tony Hawk 2 keeps the same foundation as the first game, taking its core mechanics and structure and adding to them rather than trying to fix what wasn’t broken. The game’s career mode now lets players earn money that they can spend on unlockables. Players can now create their own skaters and parks to skate in. A skater’s tricks and their button inputs can now be customized, meaning you don’t have to put in the extra effort to memorize the combination for each individual skater’s special tricks. There are new and very fun cheat codes for when you want to mess around, with one highlight being “moon physics” where your skater can jump super high. And now Spider-Man is included as an unlockable character!

But there is one huge thing that THPS2 adds which affects gameplay the most by far, and that is a type of trick called a “manual”. The “manual” is when the skater rolls along the ground only on the back wheels of the skateboard with the front part tilted upwards, comparable to a wheelie on a bicycle. Why are manuals such a big deal? Because now you have a far easier way to link tricks together. In the first game, if you grind on a rail, there are ways you can do a short hop and do a little kickflip in the air or something for more points, but that wasn’t going to get you too far. But now, you can grind, then jump onto the ground and manual, which opens up all kinds of possibilities for stringing huge combos of tricks together. Of course, you have to maintain your balance while doing a manual which gets progressively harder. But the risk-reward gameplay gets so much better even from this addition alone.

What does this specific version of THPS2 bring to the table? Well, for starters, all the levels from the first game are included, plus a few more completely new levels. There are some nice touch-ups like improved graphics and the addition of a visible meter when grinding rather than having to rely on how much your skater’s body is tilted to see how well you’re keeping your balance. You can now create female skaters in the skater creator as opposed to just men. The game also takes advantage of the Xbox’s “custom soundtracks” feature. The console allows you to insert a music CD and save the CD’s audio tracks onto the hard drive, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x lets you play one of those saved tracks as the background music while you’re skating. That’s pretty awesome.

But there’s one specific feature which gives 2x a lot of merit, one that barely anyone seems to ever acknowledge…and that is, this is literally the ONLY classic Tony Hawk game that allows for four-player split screen local multiplayer!! All the other old Tony Hawk games restrict multiplayer to just two players. That honestly has always baffled and frustrated me about most of those games. I’m so glad that they finally came to their senses and allowed foursomes for this one game. I’m just confused as to why they didn’t do it again afterward!

As for my personal memories, my cousins Kevin and Peter first introduced me to Tony Hawk 2 when they got it on Sega Dreamcast. For a time, it was probably our favorite video game to play together. When I was able, I picked up the Nintendo 64 version for myself. Unfortunately that version isn’t as good, but that was the console I had at the time so it had to suffice. I didn’t own it for very long and I can’t remember whether I misplaced it or simply sold it.

I remember being in a store sometime probably in 2002, I think Costco, and seeing the box for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x for the first time. I was immediately intrigued and knew I wanted to play it at some point. When I got my Xbox in 2004, it was a priority to grab it, and I wasn’t disappointed by it. I’ve always been surprised at how dismissive people are of this version, and I partially understand it, but this is still a very good Tony Hawk game that’s objectively the best old-school release of 2, and the four-player split screen alone gives merit to playing it in modern times. 

As a fan of classic Tony Hawk, I refuse to overlook 2x. It’s a wonderful Xbox exclusive, and I consider it essential in my collection.