Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Tony Hawk's Underground

Written by Chris Reiter on July 21, 2003

First Impressions: Smoking up halfpipes, even below the street.

Hawk, Tony Hawk. It's one of the biggest names not only in the extreme sports industry, but also in its own clothing line and of course with Activision's popular skating franchise. The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series has been around for more than four years now...but soon, all that's about to change. No, Activision isn't canceling it for those of you who've gotten sick of the game already (you sad persons you); rather, they're just reinventing, remodeling, and reintroducing the franchise into a totally transformed Tony Hawk for the new age of gaming: one that'll be appearing this fall under the Tony Hawk's Underground heading.

First and foremost, the Tony Hawk franchise is not just another skating game, it is THE skating game. It's the one that in 1999 began to actually get gamers, hardcore or newbie, interested in the genre. Activision's series, developed by the creative team at Neversoft Entertainment, did this by planning a gameplay system that couldn't fail. You pick a legendary skater, you collect items and earn cash, and you unlock secret characters amongst other things. Through its sequels, additional features were added that could let you create your own skater and even travel online. Now it's the fifth year for another installment. But Activision says to hell with the old, and in with the new -- the new way in which you will become a skater instead of being some nobody or one of the pros. It's you! Get it? YOU!

Tony Hawk's Underground (better known as THUG) won't be your typical Tony Hawk roundup. Here you're not selecting any random skater and putting him or her to the test through various point earning tasks. Activision's main theme here is you. Instead of imagining that you're already a professional boarding champ like what was implemented in the first four Tony Hawk formulas, THUG will have players experiencing what it's like to live the ranks of a street punk who eventually will earn the status of skate pro. As THUG won't represent your ordinary Hawk sequel, the system will present something much different for a change. For example, players will no longer be restricted to the confines atop their wheels, as one of the most intriguing aspects of the coming game will allow you to hop off your board, run around, and even shimmy along climbable rooftops in order to access new level areas you wouldn't be able to reach under the normal Tony Hawk circumstances. Sure there'll also be room for opportunity to pull off the grinds, flips, and wall rides that you want to do in the game, but first you've got to start off at the bottom of the ladder in order to get up to the top. Missions that will stream into your character's revolving storyline like taping up skate shop-related flyers around the block, aiding the police in the removal of a street barrier that stands in the way of the rest of the level, and even tailing a criminal in a stolen vehicle (that you stole) will make your list of the more "action" oriented, story evoking differences that will place a barrier between THUG and the rest of the Hawk legend.

Of course, this game is still about you, right? Well, what about you? You think you're so special? You think that you're some kind of superstar? Prove it. With THUG, Neversoft is handing out the tools so that you can duplicate your own enormous and pimply nose, bloody and bulging eyes, and double chin likeness right into the game itself. Using an already existing photo of yourself, you'll be able to store your image on Neversoft's online server where by manipulating the program's plotted points, you can turn your digital nobody into your digital somebody. Naturally, there's also always been the do-it-yourself option in the Hawk games where you could just create your own generic person out of a list of parts. But for THUG, Neversoft's taking things up more than just a notch this time, and they're going all out. Such modes as Create-A-Trick (tweaking the placement and positions of your character's animations, you'll have the chance to customize up to six of your own point ranking sly or sucky maneuvers to show off with), Create-A-Board (once you manage to gain a deck sponsorship in the story mode, you'll have the chance to piece together your own skateboard by coloring and combining various parts the way you want them to look), Create-A-Goal (made up of familiar objectives like collecting S-K-A-T-E, ranking high scores, or completing some timed missions, you'll get to set the counter limits, you'll get to place where the items lay, and you'll get to raise the bar for whatever and whoever does this or that throughout the main game), and Create-A-Park (as always, you'll have a shot at tailoring your own skate park level filled with dangerous gaps, curves, railings, buildings, benches, and the like so that you can call yourself the master of a level that suits you best) should allow for hours of replay value. Especially considering that each of these features is going to be online enabled where you can upload and download yours or others' creations through the memory card (PlayStation 2 only -- sorry GameCube and Xbox suckers), it's certainly looking to be a wonderful time for online gaming in the console arena.

With the last two Tony Hawk releases now past us and having introduced a much bigger, thriving world full of skating sites to explore...you have to wonder how Tony Hawk's Underground will turn out in its stray from the norm. There's no reason to panic however, because Underground is expanding its world in a way that Tony Haw's Pro Skater 4 mixed in an extra touch of reality into the batter. Like in Activision's last Hawk title, in the game itself you'll be getting your regular share of excellent texturing, models, and balance of animated skater effects that stay true to the franchise's level nature. To add to that, Neversoft's also letting THUG be the first of its own kin to sport shifts in the time of day and even a dose of weather effects to make everything appear all the more real. And if you thought that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was big, you haven't seen Tony Hawk's Underground obviously. Neversoft is hoping to situate THUG's environmental realm as the largest of any they've managed to construct yet -- so much so that they're having difficulty fitting it all into one game.