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By Brad Cook If pulling off awesome lipslides and incredible ollies is how you like to spend your free time, we’ve got a game you’ll want to load on your Macintosh computer as soon as you can: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. And even if the above made no sense to you, read on. We bet you’ll be dying to pull off crazy combos for insanely high scores by the end of the next page. |
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Flyin’ high as Tony
Available from Aspyr
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“So, who is this Tony Hawk guy?” you might be asking yourself right now. He’s only the most exciting professional skateboarder in the United States (yes, there are professional skateboarders), and he’s definitely the king of the so-called “extreme sports,” which are getting more popular all the time. (To find out all there is to know about the guy, be sure to check out his bio.)
And he’s so hot that he lent his name to a series of skateboarding games that knock the socks off the dinky ones you probably remember from the 1980s, when skateboarding was popular the first time around.
“Although the skating games in the past were fun,” Hawk says, “there were none that captured the excitement of real skateboarding. I knew that modern game platforms had this potential, and Activision had the same idea.”
Getting it Right
Activision published the first two games in the series for Windows and various game consoles during the past few years, and now Aspyr has grabbed the newest Hawk title for Mac gamers.
“It’s really one of those rare games that gets it right,” Aspyr president Michael Rogers says of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, “and we’re excited to have it in our line-up. It’s the kind of game you can spend two hours playing and not notice the time going by.”
Adds producer Nicole Willick: “Tony, who’s an avid Mac fan, is very excited to see his game come to the Mac. This is a great opportunity for Mac gamers.”
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is an open-ended game in the tradition of the best free-roaming adventure titles, but the action also features the same white-knuckle intensity of any great sports game. Select one of 13 professional skaters (including Tony, of course), choose a park to skate in, and start flipping and grinding your way to high scores. As you successfully complete more complex tricks, you’ll earn more points; score enough points and you’ll unlock new levels, characters, and cheats for even more skating fun.
To make sure that the game was as realistic as possible, Willick says that “most of the skaters in the game contributed video footage for reference [for the animators]. The skaters were the most critical when it came down to getting the tricks right, and worked closely with the artists to make sure that all the animations were correct.”
As you play, the onscreen action is accompanied by a thumping soundtrack that most skaters — as well as fans of alternative music — will love. It features Rage Against the Machine, Bad Religion, Anthrax and Public Enemy (together on the same song), and many more punk/thrash bands (sorry, old school skaters, no Dead Kennedys or Minutemen).
Real Skate Parks
Skaters will also love the fact that most of the parks in the game are based on actual skateboarding spots, including a very familiar one.
