Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color transfers the successful skateboarding concept to a handheld in the form of a simplified but surprisingly functional 2D interpretation. Playing as one of the professional skaters, the player completes time-limited objectives on individual maps — collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E, scoring challenges, or finding hidden gaps — and chains tricks, grinds, and jumps into combos to rack up the highest possible score. By progressively completing objectives, the player unlocks new maps and additional skaters, keeping the motivation to return even after clearing the first levels. Each map also contains hidden areas and bonus items that encourage thorough exploration beyond the main trick lines, similar to the console entries in the series.

The move from a fully 3D console game to a side-on 2D perspective required reworking the trick controls, and the game focuses on smoothly linking jumps and basic maneuvers to preserve the sense of flow that made the series famous. The graphics on GBC are clear and legible, and individual map elements like ramps or rails are easy to distinguish, which is key for planning trick combos. The music leans into a rockier vein that references the console versions' soundtrack, albeit in a more limited, chiptune form, and complements the frantic pace of the high-score chase well.

Reviews at the time of release rated the game as a solid, if necessarily more limited, substitute for the console experience, deserving credit for how it tried to preserve the core gameplay despite the platform's technical limits. For fans of the series it's still an interesting example today of how the skateboarding phenomenon could be adapted to a handheld with just one extra button compared to standard controls, and as a companion to the console entries it still holds up surprisingly well after all these years, especially thanks to how well it preserved the feeling of smoothly chaining tricks on a small display.

Why play it: For fans of the series, it's an interesting example of how the skateboarding phenomenon could be adapted to a handheld with just one extra button, and even years later it still preserves the feeling of smoothly chaining tricks remarkably well.