I’ve been eyeing this up for ages but it never really went cheap enough. Sure, I’m a fan of the series (although THPS3 is the best one), but I couldn’t bring myself to pay more than £20 for it. Then PS+ gave it away as a free rental, finally, so here we are. It’s a remake of the first two THPS games, mostly as I remember them, only in much higher resolution and with some of the music missing because …
Let me say this: BEST. GAME. EVAAR. It’s a remix of THPS1 and THPS2, with new graphics. Which is instantly awesome. It even retains some of the music from the originals. And it only cost £8-ish. And you know I like Tony Hawk games. Oh yes. It came out last Wednesday, and I’ve played it a LOT since. It’s pretty much perfect. Some people are saying it has framerate issues (it doesn’t), it’s not big enough (it’s plenty big enough …
Oh Tony, Tony, Tony. Where did it all go wrong? Why, after the utter perfection that is THPS3 did you let your amazing series of amazing games turn into the shambles that is Ride and Shred? Oh Tony! Why have you forsaken me, your most ardent of skateboard game fans? Me, who has completed every single one of your games, before that sorry pair, so many times on so many platforms. I even completed the original game on the N-Gage! The …
TONY HAWK. He’s the best guy ever! Well, maybe Tom Jones is better. Hmm. But he’s still GREAT, and his games (aside from RIDE, but we’ll just forget that one…) are GREAT. And THPS2 is one of the MOST GREAT games. And now it’s on the iPhone! Amazing! Surprisingly, it works really well. Controls are great (and I generally hate virtual d-pads and buttons), and pulling off tricks isn’t any harder than I remember from the Dreamcast and PC versions. …
That makes two THPS games in two days! Got through the rest of the game without too many difficulties. Finding all five Magic Bums on Venice Beach was a bit of a pain (the fifth one eluded me – it was right where you start the level!), and the final Bull Ring competition was a close thing (I won by just 0.1 points), but aside from those there weren’t many problems. I haven’t 100%ed the whole game, and Philidelphia in …
Finished off the School II level, getting stuck on trying to find the last bit of cash (which turned out to be right at the start of the level – I just hadn’t seen it. Tch). I’m also sure that I should be able to open the gym up by grinding the Opensezme Rail, but that doesn’t seem to work. Marseilles was next, and was a competition. And very easy it was too, with me getting 96.6 and 98.4 as …
YES! LOOK! A DREAMCAST GAME! And, yes, it’s ANOTHER Tony Hawk’s game. In fact, it’s the very first one I ever played, but only (up until now) own on the PC. And it doesn’t work on Windows XP. So I had to buy it for the DC. Anyway. It’s amazing how well the graphics have aged. There’s not really much in it between this and the GC and Xbox. Unfortunately, THPS2 doesn’t have any reverts, pivots, flatlands or tweaks, making …
Oh lordy lord. What a pile of rubbish. Not that I was actually expecting much else, but my thirst for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater knows no cure, so I had to quench it for a bit by buying the Game Boy Colour versions of whatever THPS games I could find for sale. So far, that’s only the third (and final GBC) one. And it’s not actually very good. Much of the problem is only having two buttons. OK, so the …
Just a quick few goes to finish off some more Pro Tour goals. I’m up to 41 completed now, and finished almost all of them in London. Picked up some more money and a few more stats points too. But, THUG calls me to move on now…
Ah. So it seems there’s actually only one Pro Challenge (perhaps per skater), and it seems you don’t have to do a difficult Spine Transfer on Tony’s one to complete it. Once I’d figured that out, it was a pretty simple task to finish it off. And that’s game over, it seems. Well, there is now Pro Tour open, so I went and had a go at that. Cleared most of the goals on the levels (except London), before turning …
Moved on to Kona, the skate park level. It isn’t actually all that much like the GC version, but that doesn’t really matter. There didn’t seem to be all that many goals there, but I racked up enough to move on to the Shipyard level anyway. The Shipyard was pretty difficult, and in the end I just got as many goals as I needed to move on to the next level and didn’t bother with any more. There were a …
Hurrah! It finally came! I have THUG, THUG2 and THAS all waiting for me to play on the GBA, but I want to do them in order so had to wait for THPS4 to arrive. Yes, I know there’s a THPS2 and THPS3 for the GBA, but I already have them and completed them a few years ago. Anyway, so I made a start on it on my Game Boy Micro. I did wonder if the size of the console …
Hurrah! I didn’t think I was going to be able to do this one, as the remaining tapes were hard. Managed the hidden tape in The Streets, which left four to go. Ticked another off by getting the 30,000 point Pro Score in The Mall, and then I was down to three with only Downhill Jam to find them (well, and some stupidly high Pro Score on some other levels). Thankfully, the hidden tape, 40,000 pro score, and 5 Valves …
Finally finished the Burnside competition level, but it was pretty difficult and a close-run thing in the end. Then it was onto “The Streets”, which I’m assuming is a section of San Francisco. Or something. And it’s hard again. Getting points is really difficult if you can’t chain combos together (no manuals or reverts, remember), and the camera angle when you get vert air makes orientating yourself for the landing a bit difficult. Anyway, managed to get the High Score, …
Well, Downhill Jam has me stumped. At least I managed to get past it by going back to the Warehouse and School levels and trying a few more goals (“tapes”, as they’re called here) to get the required total to open up Burnside. No, not the guy from The Bill. I recognise Burnside from THPS2, as it’s part of a larger level there. It’s a skate competition level, and it’s hard. I can’t seem to “mix it up” enough to …
