EPT![[image loading]](http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/207210/header_292x136.jpg?t=1348073008)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/207210/
I simply could not have been more excited.
See, THPS2 was one of those games for me. Coming from a relatively lower class family, my brother and I were lucky enough to have been gifted a playstation for Christmas. Yet we couldn't afford any games, so I had to rely on the $10 official playstation magazine game demo's for my gaming fix.
In one issue they were running a competition where they gave a demo THPS2 which contained one level, Marseille, France. And they offered $10,000 to whoever could get the highest score. Now me and my brother would have played this one level thousands of times between us. Each taking turns trying to better each others score. First it started with us just continuously doing melons and handplants in the bowls as we had no idea wtf we were doing. Then we realised (very slowly) that if you just spammed the same trick over and over there was no way to get a good score.
So we learnt about grinding, and manuals. Our scores were gradually improving, until we were absolutely stoked that we were hitting around the 100k mark. We submitted our score not knowing honestly whether it was good or bad, but thinking it must have been awesome, after all we played it every day for like a Month.
Then when the results were published the winner had a score of over 2 million...
Not willing to accept that such a score was possible we just kept on playing, again, and again, and again and again. Combos started to make sense, and the true depth of the game was just being realised.
Now I never got great at the game, I think my best score was around 800,000. But I'll never forget all those hours invested in to this one demo (nor the only song from the soundtrack that was used in the demo, posted below). Pulling off 20x multipliers on tricks was like second nature, trying to perfect the best run around the course.
So naturally when I saw this HD remake I was fucking excited. And the final course was Marseille. So tonight I stayed up for about 6 hours longer than I should after work to unlock the course, and it all came flooding back.
Now naturally this isn't a great score to be making a video about, it's obvious I make many mistakes / go for runs that I simply don't even come close to pulling off. But I still think it's rather amazing that the muscle memory is still there some ~14 years later (this was about my 5th run on the map today).
Just wanted to share it. And ask the question, how many of you still remember how to skate? =D
I highly recommend getting this game to anyone who played thps/thps2! Or even if you didn't it's definitely a great game, and makes me sad that the franchise went the way it did (focusing on trying to be cool/underground instead of keeping that core gameplay.)
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