Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Activision
Copyright Date: 2004
Review Date: 3/1/05
Here’s one for all of you skateboarding vidiots out there. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 World Destruction Tour came out last November and I’m finally writing about it. This is the sixth installment in the Hawk series and it just keeps getting better as far a mechanics, physics and gameplay go. First of all the game has 2 main playing modes Story mode and Classic Mode. There is also an online portion, create-a-skatepark feature, create-a-skater, create-a-graphic and create-a-goal options. You could play this game over and over again before you get bored. I’ve only really gotten into the classic, story and create a skater parts, having a job really gets in the way of playing video games all day so I’ll be describing only what I’ve done.
Story mode: Story mode is different than in THUG 1. THUG 1 had the player starting off as an everyday skater who has to work his way up to being pro, in THUG 2 you start off the game where the last one left off as a pro and you are chosen to go on tour. Your character is teamed up with Tony and a group of pros to go head to head in a contest of world destruction and chaos against Bam Margera and his group of pros. Your job is to go through the different levels completing goals and gaining points along the way. There are 15 levels total (not all are used in story mode) to get through and lots of easy and really hard goals that make this mode a real challenge at times. There are even special guests on each level with their own sets of goals to complete some of whom include Steve-O from Jackass and Ben Franklin from the past who has the most annoying style of all. The only problem that I had with the story mode was the idiotic pubescent storyline and the over-the-top trying to be cool humor of Bam Margera and every other actor. It’s obvious that this game is aimed at 13-year-olds which is fine since they’re the ones making Tony and Activision rich. Story mode was however pretty fun and the addition of the freak-out meter helps in taking out your aggressions on the video world. The freak out meter lets your character get pissed after a slam and throw, kick, focus a board or have a fit after a slam.
Classic mode: Classic Mode is a whole game in itself. It is just like the first 4 Hawk games where you have a 3 minute time limit to complete a list of goals and move on to the next level. I have to say that I had the most fun with this mode since I like the older style of the Hawk games more than the story mode styles.
The levels: The levels in THUG 2 consist of a variety of brand new levels and cities to skate in and several levels from the past Tony Hawk games. This made the game very fun since you could play a level from the first Hawk game and be able to do all of the new tricks, transfers, manuals and maneuvers that have evolved in the series over the years. It brought me back to the days when the first Hawk came out and I spent countless hours with friends playing it and being totally stoked on the best skateboard video game ever. Everytime I play the school level I think about my friend Pat who would pick Andrew Reynolds and make him slam intentionally just because he hated him.
Final analysis: THUG 2 in my opinion is keeping the streak alive and is still the best skateboarding game ever on the market. The addition of new tricks and transfer capabilities makes it possible to do more and skate more like in real life (except for the crazy combinations and impossibly high airs), my personal favorites have been the hip transfer, the spine transfer, and the no-comply. These tricks are not new to THUG 2 but without them the gameplay would suffer, if you don’t believe me go play THUG 2 then go back and play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 it feels like you’re playing the Atari 2600 again. A couple of new moves and abilities added to THUG 2 are the sticker slap, the ability to get into vehicles and cruise around, and the spray paint tag. THUG 2 offers countless hours of game play and the replay value is very high. I bought this game as a pre-order in November and I’m still having fun with it 3 months later. The price has since dropped from $50 to I think around $30 so go pick it up if you’re into these games, you won’t be disappointed. If you own THUG 1 then you should still pick up THUG 2 since the story in a way picks up where the first on left off.
Extra note: As a special pre-order offer THUG 2 was sent out with a bonus DVD that has a small documentary consisting of Tony and others honking their own horns about the success of the series in a retrospective. They definitely have the right to do so as they rake in the mountains of cash that the game has made. The DVD also includes a few short movies clips of the Neversoft crew trying to skate, these are actually kind of funny if you like seeing people slam trying to drop in on transition for the first time. Although I’ve made it sound good the DVD is actually kind of lame and looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, I was happier with the free shirt I got from pre-ordering Underground 1, man that sounds geeky.
Online Action: www.activision.com/microsite/thug2/
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