Overview, The Good News

Publisher: Activision
Tony Hawk PS official page: http://www.activision.com/games/th2/
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 resources
ETA: Fall, 2000

Port 80

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (THPS2) is likely to become the most ported game in recent history. The wildly successful original on the PSX, and its awesome looking Dreamcast counterpart have legions of fans worldwide. Why? For the best reason there is - it's fun. The tricks, stunts, moves, and flair of the game combined with the imaginative levels made it into a great time killer. THPS was so good, in fact, it actually helped wean a friend off EverQuest (although he now has a phobia of camping equipment and books...)

Boards must be glued to his feet or something

I could never do this

Yet, we poor PC gamers were left out in the cold, having another reason to be jealous of our gamepad-wielding, low-res, low-tech console cousins. Rumors of a port abounded, but no such luck. However, the sequel promised a multi-system launch, with Dreamcast, N64, and PSX being targeted on the console front, while a PC release was promised. We've been playing Activision's recently released demo of THPS2 for the PC, which seems like light at the end of the tunnel. Or is it?

I like my face too much

Score!

You see, when you do a port of a game, there are several ways to do it. You can do a straight port - everything from graphics and sound to gameplay with minimal changes. Or you can rebuild a game for a platform, try to recreate the graphics, sound and "feel" of a game without using the same source material. Each method has its pros and cons, and today you're going to learn about the blessings and pitfalls of the straight port.

Odd grind

He scores again!

The Good

Keep in mind that this is a demo and things can change. But from what we've seen, THPS2 looks to be as exact a duplicate as the development team could manage of the console versions. Now this is a bit hard to judge given that the console versions aren't out, but with our experience with the original and the knowledge that the sequel is simply "more, bigger, better" Tony Hawk, the demo is very indicative of "keeping the faith."

The most important thing you need to know is that if the demo is any indication, the PC port of the final game is going to be very true to the original. Everything from graphics, style, gameplay, the interface and even the front-end have "console" plastered all over them. Your skater moves with the same fluid, gravity-defying grace as he did in Tony Hawk. It's particularly reminiscent of the Dreamcast port, since the graphical capabilities of the PSX and N64 don't lend themselves well to that comparison.