Xbox

Tony Hawk's Underground

The biggest name in skateboarding takes a back seat to a nation full of wannabes in Tony Hawk?s Underground?and the results represent a fresh start for the series.

Creativity is where this game shines best. Now, instead of a career mode, you have a story mode that takes you from a poor kid that lives in New Jersey, to a total pro at the end. Now, you can also create your own tricks and boards for your skater in story mode. The park editor has been improved to include building, wires, homes, mailboxes, everything a normal level has, even goals. You get to make your own goals for the parks and even the real levels. You can make all different types of goals that you can really play in the levels. You can always take your goals and save them to your memory card and give it to your friend to try and beat it. Even though the PS2 version has the best features in downloading your face into the game and online play, the Xbox and cube version are still fantastic.

Developing a new installment for the number one skateboarding series would seem rather easy when there isn’t much in the way of competition. But Neversoft is not one to rest on its laurels, as the finely crafted Tony Hawk’s Underground clearly demonstrates. It’s a game every bit worth owning if you’re a fan of the series and still worth checking out if you’re not. Leave humanity behind and escape to the Underground!

c T.H.U.G. is an amazingly well designed game, but there are a few minor issues that prevent this game from being near perfect. First of all, the ability to skitch, or hitch a ride on passing vehicles, seems to be way too easy to perform inadvertently, especially if you’re in the middle of a sequence of grabs. This can be a problem when you’re trying to weave around a passing car during a tight time deadline only to find your character grabbing the back bumper when you don’t want them to.

This game is loads of fun if you are playing Story Mode and moving up the world circuit or playing against friends via split screen or system link in the many modes it offers. The customization of everything from your board to character design down to the ability to create custom levels is simply amazing and extend the life of this game indefinitely. As if having to beat the game on 3 of the 4 difficulty modes weren't enough to unlock everything. THUG has come to be what is the best in the series of Tony Hawk games and can keep even the non-skateboarder entertained for hours with its features, options, story mode and unlockable content.

No, it's not a skateboarding revolution, dufus. But Neversoft, the development team responsible for the skateboard-videogame upheaval of the late 1990s, has indeed handed over the controls to the kids. Tony Hawk's Underground (THUG), the fifth title in as many years as its existence, gives players more customization, more control and more to do in this year's model that it's become a tough task to get it all down on paper.

Back to the roots! Statt im 5. Teil noch weiter zu überdrehen, hat Neversoft einen coolen Story-Modus integriert und sowohl die großartig gestalteten Levels als auch die abwechslungsreichen Aufgaben realer gestaltet. Das Skaten in den detaillierten Metropolen macht mächtig Laune, die Fahreinlagen sind ein netter Gag, mehr aber auch nicht. Das ebenfalls neue Feature des Absteigens vom Board wurde gut umgesetzt und wertet das erneut geniale Gameplay auf. Gerade bei der Suche nach Skatern oder Gegenständen oder beim Erklimmen von Häuserdächern ist dieses neue Element hilfreich. Insgesamt haben es die Entwickler geschickt verstanden, der Serie mit den Neuerungen und der Konzentration auf das Wesentliche genau den Dreh zu geben, den sie gebraucht hat, um nicht zur Skateboard-Farce zu werden.

Give Neversoft’s crew credit: They never settle. Each edition of the Tony Hawk series has added new things to the already-awesome formula, and Underground is no exception. Expanding on Tony 4’s wide-open worlds, this game is molded as a skateboarding action/adventure – one that lets you take a aspiring skater from the streets of Jersey to the heights of skateboarding fame. It’s quite a journey. Along the way, you’ll cross paths with skating legends like Stacy Peralta and Tony Hawk, get betrayed by your best friend, and even be thrown in a Russian jail!

Overall, Tony Hawk's Underground is a great-looking game. The levels are large and colorful, and the trick animation is as good as it's ever been. The game runs at a high speed, and, depending on which version you're playing, the frame rate is either completely smooth or mostly smooth. That said, it does have its rough spots. The skater models look fantastic from a distance, but up close they really don't look so hot. This is the same problem the series has had for the past two years, really, as the people you encounter for goals still look a little weird. Only now, you're seeing most of these models--or slightly enhanced versions of them--in the story mode cutscenes, so you get to see a whole lot more of them.

Chaque année, Tony Hawk revient comme pour réaffirmer sa position de leader sur le secteur. Underground marque un tournant dans la série sans pour autant lui faire perdre son niveau de qualité. Au contraire !

If you were walking down the street and someone came up to you and said, "You're a punk," you'd be extremely offended. However, if someone came up to you and said, "You're a thug," you'd probably extend your right hand and smile. No one wants to be a punk. But being a thug isn't so bad when it means you're in tune with Tony Hawk's Underground, the latest addition to the Tony Hawk family.

In the end I don't think the choices that Neversoft made with THUG make that much of a difference to me. The way you play the game now is just fine; I would've preferred something else though. As it is, I can't complain too much. I'm still loving the game, although no online play is very disappointing. If you're a Tony Hawk fan, you'll definitely enjoy this game.

THUG is a great game, but it’s been a great game for years so if you didn’t like it before, you won’t like it now. But if you’re already a fan, you can’t ask for much more. It’s a massive, exceptional product that expands every aspect of its predecessors without sacrificing much, though it’s a better game on the PS2 than the Xbox or Gamecube thanks to its great online functionality. The Hawkman keeps on rising.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater continues to be a video-game phenomenon. With four monster hits already under its belt, developer Neversoft has released the latest game in the series -- Tony Hawk's Underground. And it's another winner. This time, the skate-mad Neversoft takes extreme fantasy boarding in a different direction. The mantra of THUG is that you are the star. Sadly, Xbox gamers get a little gypped (as do GameCube owners) by the distinct lack of online functionality. While the majority of the gameplay is intact -- including the excellent single-player story mode -- it's painful to see that the ultra-cool face-mapping and online eight-player multiplayer game is absent from the final Xbox package. However, THUG for the Xbox remains one of the best games you'll play this year.