
In many ways, if you played the last game
in this popular skateboarding series, Tony Hawk's Underground, then you've already played the new one,
not surprisingly titled Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Most of the gameplay has remained the same,
the graphics have improved ever so slightly,
and the types of goals are a lot like its
predecessor. Basically, it's more of the
same, wrapped up in a slightly more sophomoric,
mean-spirited package, thanks to the ubiquitous
prescence of MTV bad boy Bam Margera. That's
not a bad thing, of course, as the game is
still the best way to get the ollies out
of your system without risking a broken ankle.
While the last game was an engrossing, Rocky-esque
story of a skater (created and played by
you, of course) making his way from the suburbs
of New Jersey to the top of the skating world,
THUG 2 takes a decidedly different approach. As
the game begins, your skater is tossed into
a black van, taken to an abandoned garage,
and threatened by a bunch of madmen wearing
hockey masks. Not surprisingly, those madmen
turn out to be Bam and Tony, and they tell
you that you've be chosen to join them on
the Worldwide Destruction Tour, in which
their two teams will span the globe, causing
mayhem and behaving like, well, Jackasses.
After Tony chooses you for his team, you've
got a chance to hone your skills by training
in the old garage. While most of the moves
and tricks are the same, there have been
a few additions to spice things up this time
around. The biggest (and most useful) new
trick is the sticker slap, which allows you
to jump against a wall, slap on your team's
sticker, then push off to reverse direction.
This really comes in handy when riding a
rail, as you can continue your combo by reversing,
racking up major points by heading back the
way you came. You'll also use it at times
to break through walls or glass, depending
on the goal at hand.
For those moments when a sticker simply isn't
a big enough mark on the world, you can hop
off your board and whip out the cans of spray
paint for a little fun with graffiti. Chances
are good that you won't really use this very
much, except for when it's called for in
the level's goals. For all of the budding
taggers out there, you can also create your
own graphic, using a tool that will allow
you to layer different elements on top of
each other, tweaking the colors, sizes, or
orientations with a series of sliders. It's
a fun tool to play with for a while, but
you can have a great time with the game without
even touching it.
The last big change allows you to "focus"
on the tricks at hand when your Special meter
is filled up. By simply pressing a button,
everything will slow down, making it easier
for you land tricks perfectly or keep your
balance when sliding on a rail. Again, this
is a nice little addition, but I found that
I really didn't need to use it during the
game, except for those moments when a goal
required me to utilize it. While it might
help newcomers keep their combos going longer,
experienced players probably won't need the
aid.
Once you're done checking out the new tricks
and gameplay additions at the garage, it's
time to head out into the real world, smashing
stuff in cities spanning the globe from Boston
to Barcelona. The object of the game is simple:
make your way through the city, reaching
goals and gaining points, until you've gotten
enough to move on to the next stop on the
tour. At the start of the level, you'll be
given a laundry list of goals to accomplish,
either as your skater, or as one of the thrashers
hidden in the stage. You get to choose one
Pro skater to help you, and there are two
other special characters to be found while
exploring the area. Each of the 4 characters
has their own list of goals, although most
of them can be crossed off by any of them.
Most of the hidden skaters have a gimmicky
mode of transport, including a mechanical
bull riding Steve-O, and Jesse James (from
TV's Monster Garage) riding a souped-up Segway.
In the last game, finding goals was as easy
as skating up to a person on the street and
talking to them, at which point you could
start trying to pass the task at hand. Now
that everything can be viewed in the pause
menu, things have changed a bit, for both
better and worse. All of the goals can be
accomplished in any order, and you don't
necessarily need to concentrate on achieving
one at a time, as many of them involve doing
things in different parts of the level. Unfortunately,
this also means that you can't simply hit
the start menu to restart the current goal
as you could before. Now, if you mess up
that long combo, you'll have to skate back
to the beginning and try again, which can
be a pain at times. Also, if you have trouble
finding the goals in the level, there's a
good chance you'll spend a lot of time pausing
and reading the description, which sometimes
takes you out of the game for too long.
For the purists out there who long for the
good old days when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ruled the roost, there is now a classic
mode that lets you play the game in the traditional
manner. You get two minutes to achieve the
goals that are laid out for you, and most
of them will be instantly familiar to longtime
fans of the series. Spell out the word "SKATE",
grab all of the "COMBO" letters
in one extended rail, or get the requisite
number of points in one run. While it's a
fun way to spend your time with the game,
it made me realize what great strides the
team has made in recent years. While THUG 2 might not be as free-roaming as the latest
Grand Theft Auto title, it still feels like you can take
your time and do whatever you want, which
is a lot of fun.
There's a lot of people who prefer to make
their own game, and THUG 2 has a wide range of Create-a-Modes that
will allow them to completely customize their
experience. The excellent Create-a-Skater
and Create-a-Park modes have returned, as
has the Create-a-Trick system that lets you
use a timeline to set up spins, rotations,
and grabs. However, there's one addition
that finally lets you tie everything together.
Called Create-a-Goal, it allows you place
a person in the level, edit the type of goal
requirements, the text, and even the reward
messages. Adding the goals to your created
parks makes it easy for gamers to challenge
their friends more than even the single player
game.
Though many were hoping that THUG 2 would utilize Xbox Live for online play,
it didn't happen. However, you can once again
battle a buddy in splitscreen multiplayer
mode. In addition to the modes that were
in last year's game (Slap! and HORSE being
two of my favorites), there is a new mode
to try out. It's called Scavenger Hunt, and
it starts out with the two players skating
around the level, hiding coins in various
places. After the time runs down, the players
race to see who can find the most coins.
The multiplayer can be fun, and you can change
splitscreen views (horizontal or vertical),
but it won't be complete until you can play
online.
Graphically, the game really hasn't changed
very much since the last game. The animations
seem just a bit smoother, and everything
looks slightly nicer, but it still looks
a lot like the last game. One place that
I did notice a difference, however, was in
the cutscenes, which now have a slightly
exagerrated look. They fit perfectly with
the over-the-top characters that dominate
this game, and Bam Margera comes off particularly
well, even as he's launching tennis balls
into his friends' family jewels.
Fans of the series have come to expect top-notch
voiceovers and a varied soundtrack, and they
won't be disappointed with this year's iteration.
All of the voices are well done and fit in
perfectly with the crazy cutscenes, though
Eric Sparrow still sounds just as annoying
as he did last time out. The soundtrack is
extremely impressive, sporting enough tunes
to make anyone happy. Basically, if you like
music of any kind (well, except classical),
there's a song here for you. There are over
50 tracks in the game, including old school
hits by Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra, as
well as plenty of hip-hop and metal songs
from artists like Brand Nubian, Metallica,
and The Distillers. Of course, if there's
a song you don't like, you can just take
it off the playlist. Don't like any of the
choices? Just import your own playlist onto
the Xbox's hard drive and play away!
If you're a devotee of Tony's series, you'll
be happy with the new game, but you might
come away feeling like it's more of the same.
Still, as I said before, that's not a bad
thing. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is the best skating game ever made, and
while it isn't nearly as groundbreaking as
the previous game, it takes everything that
made it great and adds some new tricks and
a dash of juvenile potty humor, leaving you
with the best time you'll have at a skate
park this year. Best of all, you don't have
to worry about Bam going after your family
jewels

