Tony Hawk Underground (Platinum) for PlayStation 2

I remember back in 1999 when I first played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I was blown away! It was unique, it was fun, it was definitely one of the best games ever thought up! I instantly became a huge fan of the THPS (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) series, and I haven't turned back since.

I enjoyed the next two titles from the series as much as I enjoyed the original. The second brought manuals to the series, something that changed the series forever, and the third one brought the series to PS2, and didn't lose the elements that made the original such a success. The great level design, the fun factor, it was all there! However, when the 4th title came out, I noticed some major changes to the series that really made my face crinkle: they took away the time limits, the missions are given by pedestrians, you can now hold on to the end of cars, and many other things. I know what you're thinking: none of that stuff sounds back, and you're right, it isn't. But it's the fact that they're taking away the aspects of the original that give THPS4 its weak points.

Tony Hawk's Underground is Neversoft's latest attempt at recreating a masterpiece. The fourth title didn't do as well as the past titles in the series, but the creators enjoyed the new details, and die hard fans were willing to accept anything with "Tony Hawk" written on it, so they took THPS4 to a new level. In THPS4, you ride around with no time limit, and talk to pedestrians to get missions. So, in order to make the game more interesting, they tried a storyline.

I give them "props" on the story: I was expecting something very corny, and it ended up only being slightly corny. You are yourself. You create someone who best resembles you (or you take a picture of yourself and the game creates one for you, LAZY!). You live in New Jersey, and you and your friend are street skaters. In an attempt to "make it big," you and your friend jump at an oppurtunity to meet and impress a pro skater. With this, you start on your journey to become a pro skater!

In THPS4, the missions that people in town gave you made little sense. With a story that (hopefully) makes sense, you would think they would make realistic goals, right? Well, too bad! They still give you strange goals, with little sense to why they give them ("Yo, my cat is stuck in a tree. Why don't you build up your Special Meter, then pull of a 900!").

The level design in THUG is interesting, yet uninspired. There are many fun places to explore, as well as some cool trick spots, but some of the levels are just too plain. They're mostly just cities with random ramps and rails all over! THPS4 had big levels, with interesting things to trick off of, but THUG has few of these, and smaller levels, as well.

The biggest new thing in this game is the ability to get off your board AND the ability to drive different vehicles. Though this does sound exciting, it's an obvious attempt at stealing the things that make another game successful, and taking it as your own (Grand Theft Auto series). The off board mode is decent, but the control's a little off. However, the fact that this helps you to get to hard to reach spots, and climb ladders really helps (as well as stall combos). As for the driving... I wish I had better news. The contols for the car aren't as fun as the walk mode, and not fun at all compared to skating! The levels just aren't fun enough to have cars in, because most of the obstacles are meant to fit skateboards only. Sorry, buddy!

Now the thing that really makes me want to slam this game into the ground is the difficulty! Yes, you can change the difficulty, but it makes little difference! I beat the game in less than 2 days, and in total, about 7 hours (yes, this INCLUDES watching the CGI cutscenes, which take up about 30 minutes in total). The missions are hardly hard at all! There are various High Score missions that are just too simple to anyone who's even touched a THPS game, and even on some of the last levels, they still have tutorial missions (where they teach you how to do a certain kind of trick, then tell you to try it). They pamper you way too much in this game, and THPS4 would be a major wake up call to anyone who's only played THUG.

However, don't think I hate this game! I had a lot of fun beating this game, even if it was quite easy! The fact that you get to choose certain missions that you can skip is pretty cool. Plus, there is the best aspect of the game, something they should have come up with a long time ago: stats increase as you develop. By this, I mean when you do increasingly well in a certain type of skating, that stat increases (for example, if you grind for 10 seconds, your grind stats increase). This is much better than before, where you choose which stats increase, and, unless you do your math, it ends up being unbalanced.

There are different things in the game that are cool, as well. When you do well at one point, you get to pick a company to sponsor you (companies including Birdhouse, Zero, etc). Then, later on, you get to create your own skate team, including whatever pro skaters you wish. There are many other examples, as well!

The soundtrack for THUG is more varied than the past titles, which could be a good or bad thing. It's good that they're branching out for the many fans who aren't into the normal punk/rock. However, now that they feature more various titles, they don't care as much about getting as good bands, and thus, picky old me only listens to about 5 songs (The Clash, Sublime, Assorted Jellybeans). That's why I love being able to turn any song you want off!

Note: I Recommended this game because it is a promising title for anyone new to the series. I would give it 4 stars if I had never played a THPS game. However, since I have, I've given it 3 stars. This is why it is recommended.

In all, THUG is a fun game. However, the flaws are quite evident to anyone who's ever played any other games in the series. With this, this game would be outstanding to anyone new to the series, but just mediocre to fans. Not to say that it doesn't have fun moments... they're just limited.

-Jon. grandpa_riot