Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Game Boy Advance)

There is no Guerilla Radio on this version, this won't stop you from turning that s**t up! Right?

Level Select#

Pause the game, hold R, and press A, Start, A, Right, Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Up, Down. The menu should shake if the code is entered correctly.

Easter Egg#

Hidden deck for unlockable character Mindy. "there's an easter egg where you can get the board, but it's been almost 25 years and I no longer remember, but it was some combination of getting certain gaps and doing a particular trick at a certain point. I doubt anyone will ever find it (without disassembling the game)."¹

Unused Text#

0x7503B8

test gap string

0x774714

dummy

0x775CCC

Unknown trick

Hidden Credits#

Starting at 0x7F2E7D.

 "menu" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Get what ya got" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Cloud Jumping" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Burned Out" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Tube Smoke" 
 Manfred Linzner

"King for a ride" 
 Manfred Linzner
"Downhill Dub" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Crushed" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Wind Up!" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Bad Vibes" 
 Manfred Linzner

"Phat boom" 
 Manfred Linzner

GAX Sound Engine v1.99d (Mar 30 2001) 
 Shin'en Multimedia. Code: B.Wodok

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

With a change in name came a change in logo, and so the title screen was changed to reflect that. Likewise, the main menu was similarly edited, replacing the "THPS2" with "SK8".

Skaters#

In what's probably one of the most notable differences, the Japanese version features three exclusive pro skaters, these being Shin Okada, Junnosuke Yonesaka and Shinnosuke Yonesaka, who also come with their own sets of boards (mostly, as two of Junnosuke's boards are differently colored versions of Kareem Campbell's "Splash" and "Needle to the Record" boards), giving this version its own unique kinda flavor...

...except it's not totally unique, as these are merely replacements and reskins of Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley and Jamie Thomas, respectively, down to having their exact same stats and movesets, as well as being in the same slots they were in the original version...

...in turn, any of the default highscores that had either of the three originally now have the respective new skater.

Shin and Junnosuke would later reappear on the Japanese release of the third game (alongside another fellow Japanese skater), but as extra skaters alongside the originals.

Gundam '95#

US/Europe	Japan

As it happened with the PS1 original, Steve Caballero's Gundam '95 board was replaced with a different one in the Japanese version. Unlike that version, however, this one kept the original name, and its design is simply the logo of Success, the Japanese version's publishers (who also published the PS1 original there), with a few added details. Once again it's likely this was to avoid any rights issues with Gundam owners Sunrise, although one might think that they would've changed the name as well.

Miscellaneous#

While all menu text was left in English, some of it was slightly altered, either to simplify it or to probably make it more understandable for Japanese audiences. These changes include...

• ACCEPT / OK
• NEW CAREER / LOAD CAREER / CONTINUE CAREER -> NEW GAME / LOAD GAME / CONTINUE GAME
• MUSIC LEVELS / SOUND LEVELS / MUSIC ADVANCE -> BGM LEVELS / SE LEVELS / BGM ADVANCE
• SOUND LEVELS / END RUN -> SOUND / END
• LEVEL GOALS / LEVEL SELECT / SPEND CASH / WATCH REPLAY / SAVE CAREER -> CHECK LIST / STAGE SELECT / EDIT SKATER / REPLAY / SAVE
• RESTART TUTORIAL -> RESTART

US/Europe	Japan

The tutorial also featured an additional change: the pause menu now has an option to retry the specific portion you're on rather than just restarting the entire tutorial.

US/Europe	Japan

...and speaking of which, it was also one of the few things in this version that was translated to Japanese, which isn't surprising as it's not something they'd want to leave in a language most of their audience won't understand.

Likewise, the screens seen prior to starting Single Session and Free Skate runs were also translated. Oddly, the level goals checklist was not translated, although one imagines it was likely due to the GBA's low resolution not making it feasible to have a screen like that very readable with how close all the text is to each other.

References#