Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color is a handheld skateboarding game developed by Natsume and published by Activision in 2000. It adapts the second Tony Hawk game into a distinct portable version rather than attempting to reproduce the PlayStation release unchanged. The Game Boy Color cartridge keeps the series focused on score-chasing, tricks, ramps and objectives, but reshapes its parks for the system with side-view and overhead-isometric stages. It arrived in North America in November 2000, with a European release following that December.

The game offers Career Mode and Free Skate. Career is the main progression route: a chosen professional skater works through the courses, taking on a short checklist of goals and earning cash for successful runs. Objectives include building a target trick score, collecting the letters in SKATE, picking up items and completing course-specific challenges. The money can be spent in the skate shop on boards that improve a rider's abilities, while further earnings open additional courses. A password system preserves the player's progress between sessions.

Free Skate removes the clock and lets players practice on available courses without career requirements. In either mode, the directional pad controls movement around the park, A triggers tricks and B acts as a brake. Ramps, rails, half-pipes, ledges and other scenery are designed as opportunities to link maneuvers rather than as simple backdrops. Launching from the right spot and combining aerial moves with grinds is central to raising a run's score, so the game retains the quick-restart, repeat-and-improve rhythm associated with the series.

Thirteen professional skateboarders are available: Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Eric Koston, Bucky Lasek, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer and Jamie Thomas. They are not interchangeable selections; their ratings differ across ollie, speed, acceleration and control. Each skater also has three signature moves. The input patterns for those specials are shared across the roster, allowing players to change riders without learning an entirely new set of button combinations.

Its seven courses are Skate Street, New York City, The Hangar, School, The Bullring, Venice Beach and Skate Heaven. Some use a 2.5D side-on presentation, where half-pipe lines and grinds define the route, while others use an overhead isometric view that asks players to navigate broader layouts and aim for ramps, gaps and pickups. The shift between perspectives is one of the clearest ways this Game Boy Color edition differs from the 3D console game while still drawing on familiar locations and skateboarding challenges.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 follows Natsume's earlier Game Boy Color take on the series, but gives that handheld formula a larger goal-driven career structure. With 13 riders, seven courses, selectable boards and a mixture of timed challenges and untimed practice, it is a compact interpretation of the franchise's early-2000s format. The Game Boy Color version should not be confused with the separately developed 2001 Game Boy Advance game, which was made by Vicarious Visions and uses a different design and release.