Hey, wanna listen to some tunes? throws a tape at your head, causing Out With The Old to play Introduction Legends come in many forms. For some, it's charting unknown space in a wildly complicated...
Hey, wanna listen to some tunes? throws a tape at your head, causing Out With The Old to play
Introduction
Legends come in many forms. For some, it's charting unknown space in a wildly complicated ship. For others, it's carving their own path as a pirate on uncharted seas. And for many gamers, it's stopping every "big bad" you can think of: chaotic embodiments, pantheons of mythic gods, egocentric wizards, and so on.
But this month, we're not chasing cosmic threats or fantasy epics. We're hitting the skatepark to prove our mad boarding skills, with Tony Hawk himself as the centerpiece.
He's the same guy who landed the first-ever documented legendary 900° aerial spin in competition on June 27, 1999, popping it out of a half-pipe in a single leap. He'd later land two more 900s in the 2010s, get credited with inventing 88 named tricks, and appeared in countless videos, films, and TV shows, both as a skater and as himself.
Just ten days ago, the second and final day of Vert Alert, his own vertical skateboarding competition in Salt Lake City has wrapped up. That pedigree is exactly what backs the entire Tony Hawk's franchise, especially the first four Pro Skater games and the gloriously unhinged Underground series.
Pro Skater 1 took the bare-bones fundamentals of real-world skate tricking and mapped them onto a video game blueprint. Suddenly, you could chase mastery without wrecking your body through endless falls.
The core loop has you choose a skater and board from a roster, each with different tricks and stats that shape your playstyle. Then, drop into one of several skate parks to chain stunts for big scores and complete literal fetch-style goals within a tight time limit.
Our CGA Game of the Month, Pro Skater 2, expands and refines that foundation in almost every way, including:
- Manuals: The game-changing addition that lets you chain tricks on flat ground without being forced into a stop when you run out of rails or airtime.
- Bigger, more varied levels: More complex park design with more routes and secrets.
- Deeper Career Mode: Instead of just grabbing tapes, smashing objects, and chasing high scores in 2-minute runs, you get more varied and elaborate objectives.
- Expanded roster and tricks: More skaters, more moves, more ways to play.
- Create-a-Skater and Create-a-Park: Full customization for both your rider and your levels.
The one big mechanical piece still missing? Reverts to chain aerials into each other. That wouldn't arrive until Pro Skater 3, and is finally addressed in the 2020 remake, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, which also folds in various gameplay tweaks from later entries up through Underground 1.
My Personal Background
When I was a kid, I vaguely remember seeing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 everywhere: for sale and rent in every store, featured in strategy and tips magazines, and even in those massive Sears holiday catalogs. We also had friends who were always messing around on real skateboards.
All of that eventually convinced my brother to rent Pro Skater 3 on GameCube. We both took turns with it. We loved how addictive and technical the gameplay loop was, but we didn't end up buying it, or any of the sequels, because we assumed it would be a short, shallow experience that wouldn't stay relevant.
We were wrong.
In 2004, our parents bought us a PS2 copy of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 instead of renting. That game blew us away: twice as many intricate, unique levels, plus new gameplay elements layered on top of the already addictive core.
A few months later, I beat both Story and Classic modes, which unlocked a set of hidden characters. The most shocking (and hilarious) one is tied to a movie finally coming out in 2027, an icon of the 2000s both commercially and as a meme.
The fun didn't stop there. I accidentally discovered a bunch of out-of-bounds glitches thanks to weirdly programmed boundaries (the Los Angeles level sticks out in my mind; I loved those rebounding invisible walls I could endlessly jump off). I also managed to clip Player 1's position marker into odd places in Create-a-Goal mode. We felt like we were game developers, which might be what inspired my brother to pursue a career in the video game industry. Good times.
Fun fact: at one point, he even helped debug the then-upcoming Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Many of the bugs he found and documented still made it into the critically panned final release, because the game had to ship before the licensing deal between Activision and Tony Hawk expired at the end of 2015. And it barely had any development time… Yikes!
Regardless, I'm looking forward to trying the original PS1 version of Pro Skater 2 for this month's CGA, warts and all. It has the gameplay loop I know and love, and I can get over the fact that I can't walk off my skateboard anymore, something I haven't dealt with since beating American Sk8land on Nintendo DS over a decade ago.
Game Information
Years of the release: 2000, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2020, 2021
Platforms: PS1, PC, GBC, Dreamcast, Mac OS, GBA, N64, Xbox, Windows Mobile, iPhone, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 1
Genre(s): Action, Sports
Links: Original - Mobygames, Original - Wikipedia
Windows - Mobygames
GBC - Mobygames
GBA - Mobygames
2x - Mobygames, 2x - Wikipedia
1 + 2 - Mobygames, 1 + 2 - Wikipedia
A brief overview at some of the versions:
Where to find the game:
- Physical Release: Prices seem to be fairly reasonable on eBay. A loose cartridge/disc is usually much cheaper than a Complete-in-Box copy (which includes the game, manuals, and box), but not by much.
- Digital storefronts: A convenient fallback solution, especially with its frequent sales. Only applies to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Game Setup
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
- Share what hardware you're playing it on
- Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
- Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
- Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
- Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
- What about its system or era?
- What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
- What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
- What are you expecting from this game in particular?
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
- Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
- Ask for help if you get stuck.
- Offer help to others.
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>
FAQ
What is CGA?
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Do I have to sign up?
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Are there restrictions on what/how to play?
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
- Choose whichever version of the game you want.
- You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
- You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
- Play a different version of it.
- Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
What is the schedule?
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 20th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
Without further ado, let's hit the parks and go buck wild with tricks and stunts!
(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen. Still rock-and-rolling after a year!)
