Customer Reviews

Tony Hawk's Underground

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Why this is called Tony Hawk's Underground is beyond me as you can no longer be the Birdman himself. Still this is an amazing game. Probably the biggest new feature is the ability to get off of your board, it opens up millions of new trick opportunities. See a ladder? Climb it and then preform one of this games mind-blasting moves from your high point. This makes combos a breeze. The new skate park editor is much different than in past Hawk games and allow you to creat new levels, not juts backyard skateparks. Creating your skater feels much more memorable in this game since that is your character, no playing as a pro here, instead you have to work your way up to that level. This game keeps THPS 4's open ended level design where the timer doesnt start until you reach a challenge and decide to take it. There are many scripted events and some cut scenes now, such as getting a new board from Bucky Lasek after you bust some of your moves for him, and gettin pulled over by cops are justa few of the scripted scenes. Hawk's graphics have once again been upped. Another cool new feature is the fact that you can create/edit your own tricks, not alot of options here as it is a first for the series (but still how cool is it to pull of a trick you named), i'm guessing in the next game his feature will offer alot more. Unfortunately (and the reason i gave the game 4 out of 5 stars) XBOX and Gamecube owners sre gettin somewaht of a raw deal, their versions are still lacking online play (unless you have gamespy tunnel for xbox) directly supported in the game. ALso one of the cool features available only to PS2 owners is the ability to take a picture of ones face and then send it to Neversoft and have it mapped for the game and then available by the person for download online and able to use it as their face for their creater skater, therefore making "you playing as you". Overall this is a huge addition to the Hawk series and keeps the game going through its 5th installment. PS2 has the best version but dont miss out on this game if you have an XBOX, it still has enough new features to keep you playing.
P.S.If you are reading this review and own a PS2 and an XBOX juts know PS2 has more features but XBOX has much slicker graphics, thats the only difference. Unfortunately for you Nintendo lovers, you have the worst deal, lacking The sharp graphics, and the online ability. If you want XBOX but you want to play online go to gamespy.com, download Gamespy arcade, and then download XBOX tunnel service, all for free, and you can play on your XBOX using your computer's connection (broadband suggested 1-8 players), not XBOX live.

This is the fifth Tony Hawk game and its like no other game in the franchise. First what makes it different is rather than picking a professional skater, you literally create your own skater or chose from pre made skateboarders and partake in the story mode (in the PS2 version you can get your face in the game, but not in X-Box). The story mode is similar to an RPG game in the fact that you wander / skateboard around an area, and certain people you can speak with. These people will give you objectives / goals to complete. Goals that range from collecting parts, five letters making up SKATE, to getting a high score and impressing other skaters or onlookers. Each goal has its own time limit and usually completing one goal leads to more. Unfortunately with all of these goals and talking to people (you can only talk to ones that have goals), it takes away from the freedom / skateboarding element. The goals have little to do with the story itself, which is being a New Jersey skate punk that wants to make it big and travel the world. The story involves escape from "dealers," street gangs, vehicular destruction, cursing, fun mayhem (at least for the X-Box). The second thing that makes this game unique from any other is apart from being able to skateboard, you can now step off your skateboard (black button), run around, jump (A button) and cling to objects to climb them (R button). So now you can climb objects, jump off them to get some major speed on the way down. The game also has some goals where you drive cars, so that is a diversion that adds to the gameplay as well. You improve your skater's abilities in the story mode by performing greater feats, such as getting speed, and jumping a quarter pipe, you will get a better skill at jumping or going down a pipe causing your skater to speed up you will improve your skill at speed. The X-Box version supports your own soundtracks, but you cannot load all your songs into one playlist, you must play them one playlist at a time. With all of this said there are several modes, unfortunately getting through all of the modes is cumbersome. First is the "create a goal" mode, where you first select a skate area you have been to, and the game lets you create a goal by first placing a person to give you the goal, then select a position where the player starts, then selecting the goal you are to accomplish (collecting SKATE letters, COMBO letters, high scores, tricks, and other goals). Also in this "create a goal" mode, you can select the pro skaters! The game has several of the pros like Tony Hawk, Jamie Thomas, Chad Masek and others or your created skater. Making all of these goals makes the game feel a little more like the old Tony Hawk Pro Skater games. There is a create a skater mode, which seems silly to have being that you need to create a skater to start the story mode. Next there is a create a skatepark editor which is very good when compared to past games. There are buildings, docks, full pipes, water, lava, rails, quarter pipes, pools and everything else to make into your skatepark with five themes to chose from. Finally the newest feature is the "create a trick". You can create your own specials from grabs, flips, kick moves and other things. The tricks may only be used as specials though and they can last anywhere from a quarter of a second to two seconds. There is advanced online play as well as you can go online and get skate parks created by other players and challenge people to competitions. Overall, the X-Box game is dropping in price and its not that much different than the other versions for the Gamecube and Playstation 2 so you may want to go with this game because of the custom playlists and online play.

Ok, well, I gave Tony Hawk's Underground only 2 Stars because of the length of the game. I beat this game in three days, and then tried to play more, but it was just boring after you finsihed the game.

On the other hand, The gameplay is smooth, and its a fun game while it lasts. That part deserves about 4 stars.

This is a fun game for a few hours, and definatley deserves a rent or two... but definately not a $50.00 purchase, you'll get bored in less than a week

-Justin

This game is a great game and maybe the best one of the year. In it you can: make your own levels with custom goals and custom tricks. It is a excellent buy!

Ok This is no skateboarding game, this is a fiesta of cardriving and stupid stunts, not a real skateboarding game. YOu dont have to be the best skateboarder to win, you just have to be the stupidist. Dont believe me? Then how come everything you do is a stunt, not involving skateboarding in anyway, and so dangerous that only an idiot would ever try it. DONT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU WANT TRUE SKATYEBOARDING FUN, instead buy THPS 1, 2, 3, or 4. BUY THIS GAME if you want a bunch of daredevil nonsense.

Tony Hawk skateboarding games have always been fun to a certain degree, but there were always various things you wished the games had. Each game was released with more freedom, creativity and options which became broader making each Tony Hawk sequal better than its prequal. Tony Hawk's Underground is by far the best of the Tony Hawk series and makes a farther leap into fantastic gameplay than the other Hawk games accomplished.

In Tony Hawk's Underground, the control has been brought to a smooth, pleasing level which makes the interface extremely easy and fun to manage. The game gives much more liberty and run of levels as you can jump off of your board, run around and even climb and hang off roof edges. A broadening of tricks allows gamers to piece together brilliant, eye-popping, challenging combos which creates limitless choices to creativity. Every trick and combo is so smooth it just begs you to do it again with more jazz. Tony Hawk's Underground boasts excellent control.

The storyline and challenges are put together very well. Starting with casual "chillin'" with your "homies" you board around New Jersey accomplishing various objects which gradually increases your skill. Fighting to become a pro, you face many challenges standing in your path which take time and skill to complete. The storyline keeps you calm and relaxed in the beginning and then furious and tense in the end as you battle against a skater who betrays you.

Tony Hawk's Underground has excellent control, difficulty challenges and a well developed story. To put it plainly, this game is a combination of the previous Hawk games put together into a brilliant, single game. This game is extremely fun. I highly recommend it.

What ever anyone else says this game Rules. 10 hours gives it a fun way to complete your goals. Plus if you can't beat one just move on and work around it. Even if you don't beat all the missions before getting a new level you can still go back and do them."If you want" I can't say anything bad about this game. It is pure goodness. The two player mode rules, Me and my friends ALL have this game and when ever we see each other the first thing we do is talk about new seceret levels and such. So whatever the other person says THIS GAME RULES.

maybe its just me. having been incredibly sick for a week... i spent a full 8 hours straight (with enough cold medicine to kill a small pony) playing it and got the the 2nd to last level. Within a week I had beaten it and gotten the two secret characters... then I just never returned to it.

The graphics and gameplay are spectacular but once you beat it there isn't much replay value... in my opinion. Unlike Tony Hawk 3 where I screwed around on that damn half pipe for an hour at a time I just didn't have a great deal of fun going around the same Hawaiian parking lots and doing the same grinds. The walking feature is phenomenal but anyone who's played the Tony Hawk series as long as I have (since i stole the one-level promo for THPS1 at my geeky neighbors house) will use it and abuse it quickly enough for it to get tired.

The online play makes it worth replay... on the same side of that coin its terribly annoying having 30,000 dyslexic 14 year olds type in caps all day straight like "IM GNNA BEET YOR @$$" and "u suk". I'm not saying they should be listening to Bach and smoking expensive cigars and quoting Neitchze I'm just saying if you're old enough to not have your mom drive you to the mall to get your 'Punkd' box set it gets a little old.

Speaking of which the music is a big step up and I never got bored listening to 90% of the stuff on there. If you dislike pop-punk and want to hear your own playlist (whoever put The Crowd's 'Modern Machine' on there is GOD) its a great feature.

The your-face-in-the-game feature only seems to work out well if you're Ansel freaking Adams. I tried about 4 pictures. I ended up looking like Shrek as opposed to my own sexy self. Although Kate Moss makes a brilliant female skater, ya know?

That being said its not that bad. Yay for Tony Hawk.

~n

The day I had thoughts of buying T.H.U.G. I thought that I would read some reviews to see if this game was for real, I saw the reviews and I didn't see any good ones...I thought to myself, okay, so some people don't like it, but my friends sure thought it was a cool game...so i went to the store and decided to buy it,I came home and i'll tell yah, i played this game alot, it is awesome!the only bad thing is it is really really short, but if your an addicted gamer like me you can just ebat it over and over, and it's really cool how u can create your own deck, park and custom skater...and there is many things to unlock....

Graphics - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Sound - 9/10

I thought this game was going to be like the other tony hawk games. Sure those are great but this one is unbelievable! There is really a story line being played throughout the game. you can also get off your board and run and climb on buildings.
Well the graphics arent amazing but once you start playing you wont care. you start off like a regular skate punk and keep playing to become the number one Skater. you really compete to get sponsered by real sponsers! I give this game 5 stars and i think you will too.