Get ready for a major new step for the Tony Hawk series. Tony Hawk's Underground tweaks the gameplay of previous installments to include a plot-twisting story, customizable tricks and decks, online play, and the ability to include your own mug shot on your custom player. Of course, you can also play as any one of pro skating's biggest stars including Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, and Elissa Steamer. Ride, walk, or drive through nine expansive levels then test your skills against other gamers online. Become a star of the Underground.
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I absolutely love this game. THUG bestows the last meaningful trick system improvements the franchise would see, features a huge and diverse soundtrack, and houses series-best level design in its Manhattan, New Jersey, and Moscow stages (plus the best parks from THPS2). It plays like a dream, and the story mode is also surprisingly memorable, with one of the most hate-able antagonists in video games. The best of what may be my favorite series.
Probably the most satisfying new game to play on-stream, back before I'd started streaming for Designing For and was just doing it with online friends. Also one of my first forays into Tony Hawk proper, following a childhood spent with Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure and a bit of poking around Robomodo's offerings. Since I'm so used to the Disney take on Tony Hawk, the usual arcadey approach that defines the Pro Skater games always throws me off. I just wanna spend more than two minutes in a place doofin' around. For the longest time I was afraid that Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure was the only place you could do that, like Toys for Bob had dumbed down Neversoft's formula for dumb childrens and that was the only way I could interface with it. But no, just turned out that Neversoft introduced Free Skate stuff later into their run, and that'd go on to define the Underground subseries.
Also, the story mode. It's not terribly complex, but it does make for a fun rising sports star narrative. I fully admit I know very little about skateboarding outside the very specific sphere of boarding in video games, so the significance of the professional skater cameos and the main procedural process around brand deals, hitting the big time, etc is all lost on me. Still, the game does a decent job romanticizing (if that's the right word) the process of becoming a professional boarder, then finding a reason to skate beyond phat stacks of cash: finding the soul of skateboarding, and being able to shove it down the throat of that insufferable Eric Sparrow. Wonderfully punchable piece o' crap, legitimately one of my favorite video game rivals on-par with Blue and The Closer's Carlos Rodriguez.
Part of why I had so much fun with THUG is how much I had to learn the game's systems, and how much work it took to actually get good at the video game. I went through as much of a training arc as the weird pompadour'd player character I customized. There's a good deal of the campaign you can just kinda flail at it 'till you get it, and that's all well and good, but I love how uncompromising the last challenge is. You have to have all the game's different systems mastered in order to nail that final line. And man, does it feel good when you finally nail it.
(Though the alternate ending where you just avoid the mission entirely is good, too)
But a lot of it also is the inherent silliness to Tony Hawk as a series. You of course have the secret guest skaters, and while the unlocks here aren't quite as iconic as Spider-Man among Tony Hawk unlocks, they honestly made for a GREAT surprise. The narrative features a lot of doofy moments, between some of the stakes and the frequently out-there sidequests. "Create a Stunt" is, I think, new to this game, but I appreciate that there's no actual need for the stunt to make physical sense. We created "Croc Gets Arrested" (I offer no explanation for that name), which somehow involved spinning 360° clockwise and then counterclockwise. I'm sure there is way more improbability you can pull off.
I've never been much for skateboarding in person, but I love it in virtual worlds for a lot of the same reasons I love parkour or running in virtual worlds: that freeform expression of self and that subversion of the conventional. I can't definitively call THUG 1 the best expression of that in the series - there's still a ton I haven't played. But among what I've played, this was far and away the most fun I've had with Tony Hawk.
Also, the story mode. It's not terribly complex, but it does make for a fun rising sports star narrative. I fully admit I know very little about skateboarding outside the very specific sphere of boarding in video games, so the significance of the professional skater cameos and the main procedural process around brand deals, hitting the big time, etc is all lost on me. Still, the game does a decent job romanticizing (if that's the right word) the process of becoming a professional boarder, then finding a reason to skate beyond phat stacks of cash: finding the soul of skateboarding, and being able to shove it down the throat of that insufferable Eric Sparrow. Wonderfully punchable piece o' crap, legitimately one of my favorite video game rivals on-par with Blue and The Closer's Carlos Rodriguez.
Part of why I had so much fun with THUG is how much I had to learn the game's systems, and how much work it took to actually get good at the video game. I went through as much of a training arc as the weird pompadour'd player character I customized. There's a good deal of the campaign you can just kinda flail at it 'till you get it, and that's all well and good, but I love how uncompromising the last challenge is. You have to have all the game's different systems mastered in order to nail that final line. And man, does it feel good when you finally nail it.
(Though the alternate ending where you just avoid the mission entirely is good, too)
But a lot of it also is the inherent silliness to Tony Hawk as a series. You of course have the secret guest skaters, and while the unlocks here aren't quite as iconic as Spider-Man among Tony Hawk unlocks, they honestly made for a GREAT surprise. The narrative features a lot of doofy moments, between some of the stakes and the frequently out-there sidequests. "Create a Stunt" is, I think, new to this game, but I appreciate that there's no actual need for the stunt to make physical sense. We created "Croc Gets Arrested" (I offer no explanation for that name), which somehow involved spinning 360° clockwise and then counterclockwise. I'm sure there is way more improbability you can pull off.
I've never been much for skateboarding in person, but I love it in virtual worlds for a lot of the same reasons I love parkour or running in virtual worlds: that freeform expression of self and that subversion of the conventional. I can't definitively call THUG 1 the best expression of that in the series - there's still a ton I haven't played. But among what I've played, this was far and away the most fun I've had with Tony Hawk.
so many banger songs came from this game and so many cool mechanics and cool maps to play on, i didn't even focus on the story because of how much fun and how silly the game was
the option to not skateboard sometimes made the game better, huh. also there is a KISS concert level (?)
This game is so fucking good dude.
I'm a bit more bias towards THUG2 but that's ONLY because it was the first THPS game I really went out of my way to beat and where I learned most of the mechanics from. This is considered one of if not the best game in the series and for good reason.
To me this game has the vibe of being the "definitive" skateboarding game, just due to the structure of it's campaign mode alone, being akin to how "career" modes are in other sports games, where you start from the bottom and gradually make a name for yourself, albeit with some cheese thrown in for good measure (it reminded me the most of the career modes you'd see in WWE games). And even that's not an issue because I love how dumb and fun this game can get at points. Eric Sparrow's reputation as one of the biggest douches in gaming history already speaks for itself, but even smaller moments like Bam Margera just looking at a tank in Moscow being all like "wow haha. look at that tank. that tank is cool haha wow." for a solid minute killed me for just how nonsensical it is. Or even you more or less participating in government espionage there just so you get enough money to go back to the states after Eric gets you kicked off the team. And it's only topped off with the game's finale against eric for the McTwist Hawaii footage, not only being a fun and challenging objective enough as is, but for the fact that suddenly now he has the power to just spawn fire at will to make you bail. It's never explained why he can suddenly do this. Fire just comes out of his ass now. I love it.
The levels in this game are so good. New Jersey is probably my favorite starting level in the series right next to THPS4's College and THUG2's expanded version of the classic warehouse. It's just consistently fun to traverse that it's never once an issue when the game asks you to come back here for the final act. And the other levels are great. Hawaii, Manhattan, and especially Moscow were my favorites.
Music is really good here too. THUG2 will still be my favorite OST but that's only because KISS is in this game and I hate them. Also there's like 3 separate songs that just interweave the game's title into the lyrics and they're corny as shit lol.
Overall an amazing time, so happy I finally decided to play this especially after how "eh" American Wasteland left me.
I'm a bit more bias towards THUG2 but that's ONLY because it was the first THPS game I really went out of my way to beat and where I learned most of the mechanics from. This is considered one of if not the best game in the series and for good reason.
To me this game has the vibe of being the "definitive" skateboarding game, just due to the structure of it's campaign mode alone, being akin to how "career" modes are in other sports games, where you start from the bottom and gradually make a name for yourself, albeit with some cheese thrown in for good measure (it reminded me the most of the career modes you'd see in WWE games). And even that's not an issue because I love how dumb and fun this game can get at points. Eric Sparrow's reputation as one of the biggest douches in gaming history already speaks for itself, but even smaller moments like Bam Margera just looking at a tank in Moscow being all like "wow haha. look at that tank. that tank is cool haha wow." for a solid minute killed me for just how nonsensical it is. Or even you more or less participating in government espionage there just so you get enough money to go back to the states after Eric gets you kicked off the team. And it's only topped off with the game's finale against eric for the McTwist Hawaii footage, not only being a fun and challenging objective enough as is, but for the fact that suddenly now he has the power to just spawn fire at will to make you bail. It's never explained why he can suddenly do this. Fire just comes out of his ass now. I love it.
The levels in this game are so good. New Jersey is probably my favorite starting level in the series right next to THPS4's College and THUG2's expanded version of the classic warehouse. It's just consistently fun to traverse that it's never once an issue when the game asks you to come back here for the final act. And the other levels are great. Hawaii, Manhattan, and especially Moscow were my favorites.
Music is really good here too. THUG2 will still be my favorite OST but that's only because KISS is in this game and I hate them. Also there's like 3 separate songs that just interweave the game's title into the lyrics and they're corny as shit lol.
Overall an amazing time, so happy I finally decided to play this especially after how "eh" American Wasteland left me.
Easily the best single player out of any of the Tony Hawk games.
First and foremost. This game to me is an unprecedented upgrade compared to THPS4. Not only does the game have so many more mechanics like being able to create your own board designs, creating your own tricks but also the first time a Tony Hawk game has an actual narrative driven story while still not sacrificing gameplay at all.
The levels in this game for the most part are absolutely stellar too. New Jersey, Manhattan and Hawaii alone are some of the greatest Tony Hawk levels ever.
This game also has some of the best physics in any Tony Hawk game I've played so far, every move feels so smooth and satisfying to do, significantly more so than THPS4 or THPS3.
The progression of the story is great as well, it feels like this would be a great place for any beginner to get into the series. THUG does a really good job teaching the player mechanics gradually over time as the game gets progressively harder.
After beating the main story, a truly do see why people think this was the peak of the series, this game is probably the most refined and focused vision for the series that we've ever gotten.
First and foremost. This game to me is an unprecedented upgrade compared to THPS4. Not only does the game have so many more mechanics like being able to create your own board designs, creating your own tricks but also the first time a Tony Hawk game has an actual narrative driven story while still not sacrificing gameplay at all.
The levels in this game for the most part are absolutely stellar too. New Jersey, Manhattan and Hawaii alone are some of the greatest Tony Hawk levels ever.
This game also has some of the best physics in any Tony Hawk game I've played so far, every move feels so smooth and satisfying to do, significantly more so than THPS4 or THPS3.
The progression of the story is great as well, it feels like this would be a great place for any beginner to get into the series. THUG does a really good job teaching the player mechanics gradually over time as the game gets progressively harder.
After beating the main story, a truly do see why people think this was the peak of the series, this game is probably the most refined and focused vision for the series that we've ever gotten.