Tony Hawk's Underground

Other products by ACTIVISION

Product Features

• explore 9 expansive levels on foot or jump on a motorcycle, BMX bike or go kart and go for a joy ride
• design and naming your own original tricks through the all new Create a Trick
• Or create bigger parks and include your own goals in the expanded Skate Park Editor
• Go online and share your new tricks & parks with friends -- or get new games, stats and online rankings
• The advanced gameplay of Tony Hawk games, combined with the freedom & originality of real street skating!

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000A082Y
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: July 22, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (156 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,701 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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  Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Sports

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PlayStation2

From the Manufacturer

You own the Underground! Get ready for a totally new breed of the Tony Hawk experience in-Tony Hawk's Underground. Play as yourself, not a pro skater, and make your way through a plot-twisting, true-to-life story that takes you from unknown local skate punk to fame and fortune as Skater of the Year.

Get off your board and explore 9 expansive levels on foot or jump on a motorcycle, BMX bike or go-kart and go for a joy ride. Enjoy unprecedented customization by designing and naming your own original tricks through the all-new Create-a-Trick. Or create bigger parks and include your own goals in the expanded Skate Park Editor.

After you're done, share your tricks and parks online with your friends. You can even download your own face into the game! And, with all-new online play - new games, support for clans - you'll have infinite expansion through downloadable content.

You're the star...you own the Underground!

Product Description

In a departure from former games in the series, Underground gives players the chance to take an ambitious non-pro skater from an unknown, to superstar status. For the first time in the series, players will be able to get off their board and explore the expansive levels on foot, or in a vehicle. Customize the look of your skater, your skater's tricks, and even create custom skateparks. Tony Hawk's Underground features nine sprawling courses, as well as a level of freedom and customization that is unprecedented in the popular series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars new stuff added; same great Hawk action, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

In order to keep the series from running out of steam, Activision decided add a "story mode" to the game. You start out as an unknown everyday skater who dreams of turning pro. There are plenty of "story scenes", starring you as the main character. As you progress through the game, new levels open up, and the drama of becoming a pro skater unfolds before you. All of this is a little bit cheesy, but nevertheless makes for an entertaining game to play.

Let me hit on the positives first. The "story mode" of the game does add a decent amount to the game experience. I found myself continuing to play so that I could find out what happens next. Also, the graphics are more detailed and the sounds are taken up a couple of notches as well. The levels are huge with lots of obstacles and spines to skate. All your favorite pros are back, with a couple of new ones thrown in too. However, the only levels you can play with one of the regular pro skaters are the levels you have opened up in story mode. Just so you know.

And now the negatives...
Not much to say here. While the story mode adds to the game, it isn't realistic. The same thing goes for quite a few of the "goals" you have to achieve. They have more in common with Grand Theft Auto than skateboarding. That aspect is probably the strangest part of the game. I guess the creators wanted some stuff in there that would appeal to that type of audience.

Anyway, I would rate this game a 9 out of possible 10.

47 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to THUG, where Tony Hawk isn't the star, you are..., June 20, 2003

By	Ty Whitley "MVGamer333" (Hampstead, NC USA) - See all my reviews

If you thought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was a phenomonal experience, wait till THUG comes out. Sorry to say, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series are dead, but think of THUG as a perminent substitute... and maybe a slight (yeah right) variation of Tony Hawk 5 where you (yes you) are the undisputed star in this game and can now WALK (yes walk, like on a road) without your board! Some of the biggest changes in THUG are undeniably the fact you can now walk, grapple, dangle, shimmy, jump, and run throughtout a level to find new and hidden areas or to accomplish a goal. Another new aspect, is that you can now gain sponsors unlike its predecessors, Tony Hawk 1, 2, 3, and 4. And no longer is Tony Hawk the star, but you are. Tony's in the game, but you are the one who gains sponsors, YOU are the one who completes tasks, YOU are the one to make it to the big time, YOU are the one who must start at the bottom of the food chain, YOU are the one who will get new boards, decks, locations, levels, etc. and YOU are the one who is the star. Literally, you are the star; for Sony PS2 owners, you will be able to take a picture of your face using a digital camera, send it to Neversoft (or upload in the game, I'm not sure), and have them place YOUR face on your created skater! Now, I'm not completely sure if this is only limited to PS2 owners only, but it will be a fun experience. Like I said, you start at the bottom, meaning Jersey. Why Jersey? I'm not completely sure, but from there, you'll help out local cops to bring down a banner (or something) to gain access to a whole new part of the level, impress backyard skaters on their modified pipes, chase a renegade (or stolen) SUV by stealing a car on the side of the street, post up flyers (or fliers, whatever) for the local skateshop, and much more. Again, with now being able to walk, dangle, grapple, etc., it will be easier for you to find new and hidden areas on a level, like if there was a wicked mini skatepark on top of a building or a secluded warehouse in the very back of a level completely filled with pipes, you'll have easier access to them by using the new walk system. Jersey is the only level I know of now, but there are sure to be other levels just as exciting and new. That's about all I can tell you about THUG now, but be sure that hopefully Activision 02 and Neversoft can pull off this new Tony Hawk series, hopefully, THUG want be a fluke. None-the-less, I can't wait for this title to come out in late October! And remember, the gang from the previous THPS games are in THUG, but they aren't the stars, YOU are.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Game, but More of the Same, November 16, 2003

By	Philip Lochner (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Note that this review is geared toward previous Tony Hawk 3 and 4 players.

THUG is another addition to the Tony Hawk series, and focuses on a story line instead of the more open ended goal-orientated features of previous games. You can only use your Create a Skater in this game, but he eventually becomes functionally equivalent to any of the Pros in other TH games. Game plot involves you rising from the kid nobody street skater in the middle of nameless town New Jersey, to gaining fame and fortune and going Pro by showing everyone else how good you are.

All your standard tricks are in this version, and the create-a-trick feature is fun but requires alot of practice to make a trick that both looks interesting and isn't impossible to pull off. Create-a-park is also back with the addition of letting you set custom goals. Online play is also included.

The single-player story line is cliched and unrealistically annoying at times. You're often required to perform tons of very simple tasks in order to continue the story, and skill points are handled differently here. You can't buy skill points as in previous games, instead you have to perform stunts and use tricks in order to gain points. Sounds good on paper but in practice it can be fiendishly difficult to grind for 15 seconds to gain 1 grind point when you have so few points to help you out with at the start, or to do 900 spins when the opening levels have few massive quarterpies. You are also limited to gaining too many points in the opening chapters of the story. At the game start, you can only gain a few points (doing very basic tasks, like a 5 second Manual or a few air tricks in 1 combo) until you progress the story enough to beat an "Amateur" level competition. As a TH4 veteran I was able to max out all my stats before completing a single mission on the first level of the story mode.

The storyline missions have alot of filler, and some are rather difficult. You'll fight the camera controls with the new Run missions, which take you off your board and make you jump up onto rooftops and such in order to find the usual tokens or items or whatnot. These Run missions aren't much fun, and the drive-a-car missions are also bad, basicially providing game filler that is neither challenging nor skateboard related. Some of the earlier "Do the tricks as I call them out" missions from TH4 are also frustratingly difficult.

In contrast, some of the earlier "trick point" missions are ridiculously easy, and I found many of those solved with only a handful of basic flatland manual tricks strung together.

Also, you'll often find yourself completing missions and gaining stat points using advanced tricks you've already learned from TH4 or TH3 (or from practice, or reading the instructions). Strangely, you'll often find your next mission from a guy who "teaches" you how to use those same skills, which seems like redundant filler.

Mission descriptions can also be very vauge and require many attempts not because you bail or run out of time, but instead because you don't know what you should be doing or what item you should be looking for. Fortunately missions that are multi-part don't require you to start from the beginning should you fail a portion.

Graphics and sound are on par with previous TH games, although I found the graphics to be a bit darker and grainier. Alot of the goofy dark-hearted humor and secret areas in previous TH games are gone in THUG, which is a shame. There are secret tapes and gaps galore but so far I have found them to be either too easy to find or too hard to temporarily abandon the story line to go back and get them. Remember, more story = more skill points, so the incentive to plod around areas you've already beaten isn't quite as strong as in previous TH games.

It's fun to finish missions and eventually pick your sponsors, which provide you with new gear graphics and outfits. There are a ton of pro skaters involved but they mostly make cameos, and after you hear their two or three lines of speech, you're dealing with nameless "team members" or "team managers".

Other than all the above negatives, it's of course difficult to give the game a low rating. It's still the fun Tony Hawk gameplay you're used to, and still a challenge. There are a bunch of new options and tricks, including wall-pushes to continue your Manual when you find yourself heading into a wall, and the Run ability which lets you stop a combo mid stride and jump off your board to run towards some new rail or pipe or whatever - kind of like a Revert or a Manual but without a balance meter. Unfortunately I haven't found much use for either, unless a mission requires it.

I still feel TH4 is so far the epitome of the Tony Hawk series of games, and THUG feels more like an expansion pack to TH4 than a true sequel. Still, it's alot of fun and a good addition to any PS2 library.

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