Tony Hawk Pro Skater Unlockable Characters
Niki Wienberg
I decided to search deep within the internet for Pro Skater game hacks to see if I could find brand new games based on Pro Skater, which is when I came upon a large 100's something MB ZIP file shown as Tony Hawk's Skate or Die.
The game goes full screen to show a logo with the PS1 Tony Hawk title screen, but instead of showing the full title, it shows Tony Hawk as normal, but instead of Pro Skater, it shows Skate or Die in the same font from that game of the same name. Even, more surprising, the Skate or Die theme music was playing instead of the typical THPS music that would play at the title screen.
The game loads and already I feel a breeze of nostalgia from this hack as the graphics look 1:1 to THPS (porting skills); the HUD looks exactly as I remember it, and nothing looked significantly altered, that was until I bailed.
Usually when you bail in a typical Tony Hawk game, you would see small spurts of blood, and get back up in about 3 seconds to continue the run, but in this hack, when you bail, the animation for standing up is absent, and you see your character on the ground, but I could tell that the creator tried to edit the animation well, but looked a little flickered and glitched. Around Hawk's laid down model was a circular pool of blood covering head to toe. After a few seconds the screen flashed: "Round Over" (then a second later) "YOU ARE DEAD" as the Mortal Kombat announcer from the third MK exclaimed to me, and weirder was the fact that the lettering was the same font as in MK3. This didn't really creep me out as it was suspected of a hacked game.
My parents said that they we're going off for business, and wouldn't be back till tomorrow, which gave me a chance to spend many hours on this hacked game, even though my parents didn't want me rotting my brain out (excellent parenting).
Playing more and more, I kept pulling off insane combos into the 100 thousands, and even millions without bailing, finding every single nook and cranny I could get my hands on without missing anything; I felt like I would unlock something if I 100% the game as any character, and proceeded to do so until I felt like getting air, and feeding myself (unlike others who play nonstop and don't bother about hygiene).
After about nearly 4 hours of playing this game, I finally 100% my career as Tony Hawk, and was waiting for an unlockable to show up, and like in THPS3 (with the font, music and everything), I saw the text:
New Character
In the old games, it was common for a Tony Hawk game to come with Easter Egg levels, characters, and secrets, and It was great to see an unlockable character in a game like this, instead of a hack that has everything you unlocked right from the start, and games like that make you feel like you've earned nothing from the experience of a game.
As I look as Scorpion, I noticed that his character model was the same model from MK9, but the modeler was clever in creating the model for this hack, and styled in the old PS1, semi-pixelated style which I thought was very nerdy, yet awesome.
The screen fades in to an old PS1 CG style cutscene (pretty impressive for a hack) showing off Tony Hawk, and Scorpion skating side by side in a Pro Skater competition. The in-game audience applauds as the skaters just ended their run, and the judges tallying the scores.
Of course, Tony hawk wins, but Scorpion doesn't know anything about sportsmanship, and decides to use his signature spear attack to take Hawk down, but he pulls out 2 spears instead while remarking (in a Sega Genesis form of audio quality): "GET OVER HERE!"
The spears don't pierce the stomach, and instead aims for the eyes, yanking on them a few times until you can see Hawk's eye sockets; Scorpion returns to hell to escape from his disastrous behavior; this is when things start getting weird.
Atmosphere is intensifying around the image as some bass fills my headphones until clipping to the max; Hawk's face slowing turning to an angry grin with the screen shaking, and then the bass stops, and Hawk's head is looking to the ground with the scene almost completely still.
After about 5 seconds, I see Hawk lift his head instantaneously with the empty eyes, and that Zalgo mouth; I could even hear his character scream, and it sounded just like Hawk himself, but in studio quality...
The screen zooms in quickly during the scream, and after a half a second of showing his disturbing new looks, the screen fades out, and that scream echos for a good 15 seconds. I then see Scorpion open a portal to hell, taking Hawk with him.
After the creepiness of the events that toke place at the Pro Skater competition, the game boots me to a Tony Hawk's Underground 2 level (known originally as Pro Skater) renamed Hell in the same font as a typical THUG2 level.
Instead of starting me up in the futuristic aircraft hanger, or the ancient temple that looks like something the Mayans might have built, the game immediately boots me right into the hell section of the level, still maintaining the Pro Skater graphics, and sound.
looking at Hawk's face, I could see the model of his face change to Zalgo Hawk, still staring into my soul. I kept looking at it to see if it would change and animate, but the animator decided to use just that one frame instead of animating his face whether I bailed or not.
When I bail in hell however, I found that the rules of gameplay changed back to the way the game was suppose to play, and knowing how this level worked (despite my lack of excitement from an Underground level), I knew I was going to bail a couple times, so it started to seemed fair, except that the game was still using a 2:00 minute timer even though in a section like this, it should really be free skate since this is a bonus unlockable level in THUG2.
Hawk's body was forced to the floor using a hacked bail animation from the hack as the timer hit zero, and just like before there was a pool of blood again; instead of taking me to a menu, the game proceeds to an in-engine cutscene of the devil talking about Hawk.
The screen goes instantly to black, and changes the scene to what appears to be the devil's main office; something like this was never shown in a Tony Hawk game, and even more so that this cutscene was also real-time in-engine footage.
"Despite your great efforts to help others in the past, I have felt the worse sense of disgust as I see you building new Skate Parks, and helping the less fortunate; it sickens me to even think about it. I had sent Scorpion to capture you since we've been very close ever since he was born into my family, and since he's managed to survive the brutal Mortal Kombat tournament, and brought you to justice, I'm going to reward him by letting him torture you!"
The screen loads me back into the hell level, and I look at Hawk's model again; this time, I can the inside of the back of his head and sides; there's no modeled skull, no brain, no cords, just an empty frontal texture.
I played around with Hawk for a while until I bailed; the screen then started to slowly tint red with atmospheric music playing in the background, and then I saw that face again; empty eye sockets, Zalgo face, and the blood stains, all in just one frame.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is a 2000 skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the second installment in the Tony Hawk's series of sports games and was released for the PlayStation in 2000, with subsequent ports to Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color, and Dreamcast the same year. In 2001, the game was ported to the Mac OS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and Xbox (as part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x). The game was later ported to Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices in 2006 and to iOS devices in 2010.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 uses the same game engine as its predecessor while improving the graphics and gameplay, most notably with the introduction of manuals and cash rewards. The game takes place in a three-dimensional urban environment permeated by an ambience of punk rock and hip hop music. The player takes control of a variety of skateboarders and either performs skateboarding tricks or collects certain objects. The game offers several modes of gameplay, including a career mode in which the player must complete objectives and evolve their character's attributes with earned profits, a free-play mode in which the player may skate without any given objective, a multiplayer mode that features a number of competitive games, and a level editor that allows the player to create customized levels.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was critically acclaimed upon release and is considered one of the greatest video games ever created, as well as the highest-rated sports video game. All versions of the game were praised, with critics lauding its addictive gameplay, large environments, detailed graphics, fluid and precise controls, customization features and soundtrack, with some minor criticisms directed at the lack of a first-person camera and the truncated soundtrack of the Nintendo 64 version. A sequel, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, was released in 2001.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 puts the player in control of a professional or fictional skater and takes place in a third-person view with a fixed camera. The player must perform tricks and complete level objectives in return for cash rewards, which can be used to unlock other levels, improve the player character's statistics and obtain better equipment.[11] The game's universe maintains a loose grip on physics for the sake of gameplay quality; while the player character can jump reasonable heights and perform short grinds early on in their career, they may eventually come to grind for much longer distances and reach such a disproportionate height in their jumps as to be capable of stringing an unrealistic chain of maneuvers together midair.[12] The player can move freely throughout the levels without constraint and fulfill the different objectives in any order desired.[13]
d3342ee215