By Neversoft for Playstation

What makes a good sequel? More of the same isn’t always a good thing, as the Tomb Raider series continues to prove year after year. In the case of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (THPS 2), though, more of the same turns out to be a very good thing indeed, but the game goes way beyond just that.

The first Tony Hawk game is not only the bets skateboard game available, but one of the best games ever made, period. The ease of control, insanely fun multiplayer modes, and tons of replay value keep players coming back more than a year after the games release.

THPS 2 gives players more of the same kind of action the first game offered, times ten. Every level in the game is goal-based just like the first game, but while the original had only a handful of goals per level, the sequel packs in about ten per stage. Look at the first stage for a good example. There are 3 high scores to break, plus "Break 5 Barrels," "Find 5 Pilot Wings," "Nosegrind Over the Half-Pipe," "Jump 3 Hang-Time Gaps," and "Find the Secret Tape." There are also $50, $100 and $250 bills scattered around the level, and grabbing all of those adds to your cash total and serves as yet another goal in each stage. You earn cash by completing goals and placing in competitions, and you spend it on new stats, tricks and boards. With 15 pro skaters to take through the eight stages of the career mode game, there’s an awful lot of replay there alone… but that’s just the tip of the iceberg here.

THPS 2 also includes a comprehensive and incredibly easy to use Skate Park Editor, which allows you to design your dream park from the ground up. It is incredibly thorough and even lets you set Gap Bonuses by designating the start and finish points, naming the gap and setting a score total for the gap. There are different sizes and themes for your park, and dozens of half-pipes, benches, rails and other obstacles. The game comes with dozens of pre-created parks to use for ideas or just to free skate.

THPS 2 also serves up a cool Skater Editor, which, while not as comprehensive as some of those in the better wrestling games, is still fairly detailed, allowing for many different styles of hair, clothing and shoes. You can use your custom skater in career mode, to see if you have what it takes to cut it with the big boys, or you can just kick back and let him spin through a custom park.

Let’s see, what else can I tell you about the game? You can custom assign all of the controls for the various tricks in the game, and the different boards actually have their own stats now as well, adding to the trick ability of your skater. There are impressive new tricks like manuals and wallies, which allow you to string together obstacles like rails, walls and ramps into amazingly long combination tricks. For example, you could pop off a ramp, pull a trick in midair, catch a wall ride, jump off the wall (a "wallie") to grind a rail and pull a hop trick off the end of the rail, then into a manual (sort of like a wheelie with one end of the board in the air) until you reach another rail, jump onto it and pull a few grinds for a huge scoring 9 or 10 trick combo. Of course, grinds and manuals have balance meters and you can’t keep them going for long, but that’s where your stats come into play. Spending some of your hard earned cash to max out stats like rail balance will really pay off in the game, as you’ll be able to pull off noticeably longer grinds or achieve better hang-time. Multiplayer? How about an improved version of HORSE, and the familiar Graffiti and Trick Attack modes, plus a new Tag game where the person that’s it has to bust tricks to slow the other player down and tag him? Sound good? It’s all good.

THPS 2 also has bonuses like TV-quality videos of all of the pro skaters in the game, plus another hilariously painful "Bails" movie. It also includes a demo of the upcoming Tony Hawk engine title Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX biker, which, as you might suspect, plays a lot like Tony Hawk, but on a bike. I’ll stick with the stakeboard, but Hoffman will be a solid game from the feel of the demo.

Bottom line: Neversoft has done it again. Not only have they produced a top-shelf quality sequel to one of the best games of all time, they’ve filled it with so much replay value that you won’t ever need another skateboarding game. This is the PS game to get this year, folks.

Graphics: 9 (Better animations and more detailed environments. One of the best looking PS games I’ve seen.)

Sound: 10 (The board effects are top-notch, with everything sounding perfect. The music is also good, although it’s a bit rap-heavy for my tastes. Luckily, they’ve included an in-game music control so you can skip tracks you don’t like… and the songs don’t repeat themselves over and over on a single stage any more).

Gameplay: 10 (No changes were needed from the original in this category. Neversoft nailed it again).

Replay: 10 (Where to begin… it’ll take hours to unlock everything the Career Mode has to offer, but you’ll spend many hours more in the Create a Park Editor and playing the various Multiplayer games with pals. This is one of those rare games that never gets old).

Overall: 9 (A truly great sequel to one of the best games ever made).