There is a game that I hopelessly associate with my stage in high school and it is none other than the mythical one Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. After the debut of the saga in 1999, it was not until its sequel in the year 2000 when it exploded like a beast conquering countless teenagers who love skate, practitioners or mere spectators.
It was the time of Jackass, from the follies of Johnny Knoxville and his, like the skater Bam Margera (who would enter Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3), from bands like The offspring (Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4) and so many other things that represented rebellion and the desire to be free. So he liked it so much, maybe, the School stage 2 by being able to do things that were not allowed in reality.
School II, the best setting for the Tony Hawk?
That a sequel repeats the scene of the first installment, however much it modifies all its elements, is irrefutable proof of the charm of that level, among other iconic ones, such as that of the Warehouse. School II was a drastic change, but more coherent, regarding the first School of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater from 1999.
The reason? Ironically, now it really looked like a school. Specifically, the entire patio area and other parts of the exterior of buildings where people theoretically study, under the watchful eye of a janitor riding on a golf cart.
It was the second level of the sequel, so it was also one of the most played as it represented a leap in quality compared to the limited Warehouse, which was extremely closed. School 2 had practically everything necessary for a skater practice all his tricks, both when jumping and doing a kickflip on the roof of buildings, like sliding with grinds by the railings. The combinations were practically infinite if we added to that the manuals.
There were five different zones, of which two were secret. From the initial part, located at high altitude, we could go down the stairs (almost all of us opted for the grind) or take two different routes on the right. The simple path to another space with a half-pipe low-rise, or use a wallride on the bell to access the rooftop located in front of the initial section, which led to a journey to the bottom of the screen avoiding various buildings, taking advantage, in passing, of the gaps. And this was just the basics.
As soon as we experimented, we realized that through the adjoining room of the initial section, there was a large jump that took us to the first secret area. An area whose access was sensed when the tape was on a flag …
The second hidden zone went unnoticed by many and after replaying this classic through the failed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD 2012 (no, I do not have the original PlayStation sequel), the truth is that I had completely forgotten it. We talk about Gym, a secret area whose access was opened in that version after the second bell and after making the gap Roll Call! Opunsezmee Rail.
Or at least, one of the most mythical and remembered
Inside the gym we had a basketball court on the right, where we could perform a gap "three points", while on the left side stood an empty Olympic pool, ideal for practicing tricks with the ollies or try to last as long as possible with a grind bordering said pool.
There Rodney Mullen was the teacher, but the truth is that any of the skaters they had plenty of areas on the squad to practice the rest of their tricks, always trying the longest combo from the starting point, both on the road across the roofs and on the right, crossing different areas.
And what about the objectives? They were fully respected in the HD version compared to the original from the year 2000. Apart from the scores of 15,000, 40,000 and 100,000 points, quite easy to get and the usual letters of S-K-A-T-E, we had to do five wallrides over the bells, get five passes to walk the halls, perform three grinds Roll Call Rails and a kickflip about him TC's Roof Gap. The only change was to go from VHS to DVD because it is more current.
All this, together with the paste scattered on the map, made achieve 100% goals and money in School II It was one of the most fun processes and a good test for what would come next with El Hangar, Centro, Venice Beah, Cuesta Abajo and Marseille. But for me that School is still the most iconic.
