Its hard to believe that a couple of years ago most of us wouldn't have a clue who Tony Hawk was, for all we know he could have been the guy serving down at the local chippie. Since then he's appeared on every format and gained excellent reviews throughout.
What we have here is a straightforward conversion with nothing new to entice the hordes of skating boarding fans out there but Activision knew it would sell anyway. Now comes the GameBoy Advance version of the Playstation and Dreamcast mega hit. As you would expect nothing has really been altered, as the motto goes if it isn't broke why fix it? The game structure is the same as before and the only real noticeable change is the omission of video footage. The control system has been changed in order to compensate for the reduced number of buttons but after a few goes it won't be long before fans of series are achieving those high scores on the portable version. Prolonged play may cause some damage as using the shoulder buttons constantly could prove awkward for some.
For an explanation of the actual game and dynamics please refer to our Dreamcast review. The cart comes with 13 skaters and 6 familiar parks from the series. The modes are as before, Free Skate, Single Session and the challenging Career Mode. There are plenty of extras to discover in true Tony Hawk's fashion including Spiderman, a Disco Zoom and Happy Blood. THPS2 is one of the most dazzling launch games for the GBA and on its own would shift a few handheld units. While the game isn't truly 3D the developers have done a wonderful job in recreating the gameplay and graphics of the home console versions. Anyone who has played a SNES will no doubt be familiar with titles that aren't fully 3D but are not exactly 2D either.
Textures and backgrounds have been altered and reduced in order to bring the skating phenomena to the GBA. These changes have given us perhaps the fastest version of THPS2 currently available and boy does it shift! You may think that sacrifices have been made in other areas as well but you'd be wrong. The animation is excellent, a real revelation on a handheld and the skate sounds are authentic and spot on. Of course the music from the home versions couldn't be transferred onto cartridge but what we have instead is an excellent in-house effort from the development team. The camera for the most part is very good but as with any fixed camera angle there are drawbacks. Some of the ramps and railings can be hard to judge and more often than not you will find yourself avoiding these and sticking with easily viewed ones instead.
As mentioned in our Dreamcast review, THPS2 is a drab looking game and on the GBA this presents a problem. Without the correct light you will struggle to play certain games on the GBA and THPS2 is going to be one of them. Such a fast moving and precise title needs your full attention without having to worry about light. While not entirely the developers fault I would have expected them to notice this flaw and perhaps compensate with brighter colours. As a launch title this bodes well for the GBA as a format, goodness knows what we'll be playing in two years time but Gamestyle can't wait to find out. So with that in mind why doesn't the game score higher?
Excluding the minor problems mentioned above this is just a straight conversion, which is a disappointment. Titles such as F-Zero have included a multiplayer mode that brings more depth to the title, not here. Gamestyle know that the GBA version of THPS3 is on the release schedule for the end of this year - perhaps then we shall see some improvements. A few new additional levels or skaters would have shown some effort but perhaps Vicarious Visions were under pressure to make the launch date. Whatever the reason, you'll be paying £5 more than the Dreamcast and Playstation versions that have been out for over a year now. Gamestyle thinks that's too much to ask and therefore its...
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