Tony Hawk's Underground 2 - Review

Added October 26th, 2004 by Sallizar

Introduction:

Way back in February I was on a business trip in Philadelphia with some associates. As with all good business trips the first thing you do is find the local hotspots. So after spending some time at an Irish pub that served the best fish and chips I’ve ever had, we headed downtown to find a cheese steak shop. We’re strolling down the sidewalk when one of the guys points across the street and says “Hey isn’t that Bam Margera?” I reply “The crazy guy in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4?” Cue odd looks in my direction. “Um, no, the guy from Jackass,” they not so politely inform me. So one of them yells “BAM!” and he gives us a nod and a wave and hops in a cab. It should be obvious now that I’m a much bigger fan of the Tony Hawk video game series than I am of Bam’s various high jinks filled television ventures. In THUG 2, Bam gets an upgrade and goes from being just one of the selectable skaters all the way up to co-star status. My question when I heard this was will it be as fresh and different as the first THUG or is it just another crass stunt for those folks that like that kind of thing?

Gameplay:

THUG took the series in a new direction, so I had pretty high expectations for THUG 2. The storyline picks up with your character skating in Jersey, right where THUG left off. Tony and Bam pull up in a black van and kidnap your character for their “World Destruction Tour”. Basically, Tony and Bam are each taking a team of skaters on a globetrotting trip and awarding points for the various stunts that you’ll be performing along the way. Team with the most points at the end wins. The storyline is told through in engine cut scenes. These will frequently even have your create-a-skater in them, and like Def Jam Fight for New York, you’ll even choose your skaters voice for the cut scenes. It’s all over the top and zany and reeks of Bam’s influence. I know Tony and Bam are good friends, but it just comes off a little odd for a classy guy like Tony to even be involved in some of the unseemly antics.

When you finish the World Destruction Tour you’re actually just getting started. THUG 2 features a classic mode that brings back the two minute timer we all love to hate. Any fan of the series remembers the hours spent trying to get all those secret tapes and letters. Classic mode even includes six remixed levels from previous Tony Hawk games. It’s a lot of fun to frantically try to grab the E in SKATE as the timer starts beeping out the last five seconds of a run. It’s almost like getting an extra game for free.

If you’ve played one Tony Hawk game you’ve pretty much played them all. Each one has progressively added new moves to make those combos even longer, but THUG 2 doesn’t really add much to the series compared to previous games. The new sticker slap move lets you push off a wall leaving a sticker of your choice behind and helping you string together killer combos. One of the earlier versions had a goal of getting the highest sticker on the wall. All you had to do was get enough air to get higher than the stickers on the textures. Now you could really slap one up to show everyone who’s the best. Running around on foot is also back and you can even spray graffiti on everything by hitting Y next to a surface. I like the addition of these moves that let you leave your touch on the environment. When you fill your special meter you can now also access focus mode along with busting special tricks. Focus mode is basically a slow-mo bullet time effect that gives the extra few seconds to really throw together a killer combo. Last but not least, if you bail, a special tantrum meter comes up. Tap Y quickly and you’ll throw a fit that starts a new combo. Sure it’s unsportsmanlike, but so is pelting pedestrians with tomatoes.

Create-a-everything! Creating your own skater, park, trick and goal all come back in THUG 2. You also get to make your own custom graffiti in create-a-graphic mode. Create-a-skater has some new items that are mostly goofy like viking helms and Cat in the Hat top hats. It fits the mood of the game quite well though. Create-a-park hasn’t changed much. It’s still a rather clumsy design system but with enough time and patience you can make some pretty gnarly parks to shred. My goals in create-a-goal always come out to easy or to hard and it makes me appreciate the design work into the “official” game goals. Lastly, create-a-trick works well enough, but the animations never quite seem to flow very well in the finished product. It always tends to look like what it is. A bunch of trick animations chopped up and tossed together.
Graphics:

The Tony Hawk series is starting to look a bit dated. Their really hasn’t been a significant jump in quality since Pro Skater 4. Don’t get me wrong the graphics are still really well done; they just seem a bit recycled. Regardless, there are plenty of interesting design choices in THUG 2. First off are the new character models. Everyone looks a bit cartoony, almost like a caricature then an attempt at realism. I didn’t like it at first, but the design fits the story much better than photo-realistic character models would. Another new feature is day/night cycles. As you skate around levels in story mode the time of day will steadily change. Seeing the environments in various lighting conditions really shows off the attention to detail that Neversoft always brings to the Tony Hawk series. Lastly, not only do the parks get bigger in each game, this time they are more interactive then they’ve ever been. Let loose a bull in Barcelona and he’ll cause all sorts of chaos that will result in new objects to skate on. Each level has these sorts of interactions that will change the park and give you fresh lines to combo.

Audio:

I’m betting the licensing costs for this game’s soundtrack was immense. You’ve got tracks from Sinatra and Johnny Cash right next to “Rapper’s Delight” and the punk pop of Jimmy Eat World. It’s the most eclectic soundtrack I’ve ever seen and yet it fits the game perfectly. I dare you not to find at least a few songs you like on this disc, but if you don’t you do get a custom soundtrack option. In game sound is pretty standard fare for the series. Once again all the skaters involved do their own voice over work (Muska cracks me up). Sound effects from trucks grinding a rail to the sound of wheels slamming back to earth all sound perfectly like a busy skate park on a Saturday afternoon. Of course the icing on the cake is hearing all of this ear candy in Dolby Digital.

Controls:

The Tony Hawk series has progressively gained a steeper learning curve when it comes to controls. While daunting at first the basic controls are easy to pick up and you’ll always be adding more moves to your repertoire as you learn the advanced moves. The skating controls are right on the money as usual, but the running around off the board controls still need a lot of polish. Since you’ll spend 95% of the time on your board, it’s not a real big deal.


Replay:

I’m going to start by griping about multiplayer. Two player split screen, not even system link?! C’mon Activision. The Xbox has the best online gaming service known to man and all you get of us two player split screen. On top of that most of the game modes don’t even make sense for two players. Who wants to play slap, king of the hill or fireball modes with only two players? Imagine Halo death match one on one and you’ll have an idea of how boring these “multiplayer” modes are. Thankfully there’s a ton to do besides multiplayer. Story mode and classic mode means you just got two Tony Hawk games for the price of one. Even veterans of the serious are going to have to put in some serious time behind the controller to finish this one. Once you beat all the official goals, you’ve got more than enough editor options to make up just about any new level you can think of. Not having Live support really sucks, but it’s still a ton of bang for the buck even if you ignore multiplayer.

Summary:

I was starting to get bored with the series until THUG came out. Adding the story mode really breathed new life into the franchise. THUG 2 seems kind of like an odd sequel though. At times you’ll have to check the box to make sure it doesn’t say Bam Margera’s Underground. Thankfully, BMUG is a lousy acronym and the solid Tony Hawk gameplay shines through the bathroom humor and the tomato hurling. It’s a fun side trip for the series but it’s probably my last must buy Tony Hawk game unless Neversoft pulls out all the stops for the next game. Fans of the series (and fans of Bam) should get a kick out of it, but if you’ve never played a Tony Hawk skating game I highly recommend the original THUG over THUG2.