Tony Hawk's Underground 2

''Tony Hawk's Underground 2'' is a skateboarding video game, the sixth entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series after ''Tony Hawk's Underground''. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision on October 4, 2004 in the U.S. for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, and Game Boy Advance platforms. The PlayStation Portable version was released in March 15 the following year, renamed '' Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix'', which includes extra levels and characters.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 received generally positive reviews, with praise for its gameplay, aesthetics and classic mode, but criticism for its story and lack of innovation.

Gameplay

The gameplay in ''Underground 2'' is similar to that of previous Tony Hawk games: the player skates around in a 3D environment modeled after various cities and attempts to complete various goals. Most goals involve skating on or over various objects or performing combos. Scores are calculated by adding the sum of the point value of each trick strung together in a combo and then multiplying by the number of tricks in the combo. New gameplay features include the Focus ability, which the player may trigger with a full Special gauge to cause time to slow down in order to help keep up their combo (by allowing greater control of their grind balance, for example); the Natas Spin, which can be performed on small surfaces like pillars or fire hydrants; and the Freak Out, which serves as another combo starter by having the player fill a gauge after certain bails, which will result in them angrily disposing of their board before continuing their session. In addition, the Wallplant maneuver was repurposed as the Sticker Slap.

Many levels return from previous games, including an expanded Warehouse (which also serves as the Story Mode's training area), School and Downhill Jam from ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', Canada, Los Angeles and Airport from ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'', and Philadelphia from ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2''.

A classic mode was added to ''Underground 2'', which allows players to skate through both new and remade classic levels in the traditional 10-goal, two-minute time limit mode that was present in ''Pro Skater'', ''Pro Skater 2'' and ''Pro Skater 3'', complete with the stat points scattered all around the levels. In classic mode, the player chooses from one or two levels in which to attempt to complete enough goals to advance. All of the "remade" levels are accessible only through "Classic Mode" although once unlocked, it is possible to play them in any mode except Story.

Plot

The protagonist of the first ''Underground'' is skating in their neighborhood hometown of New Jersey when Tony Hawk and Bam Margera kidnap them and take them to a dark room with pro skaters Bob Burnquist, Eric Koston, Rodney Mullen, Mike Vallely, Chad Muska, Wee-Man, Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan (a foul-mouthed kid who wears a body cast and drives a high-powered wheelchair) and Eric Sparrow (the protagonist's former friend-turned-rival). Tony and Bam explain their plans for their debut "World Destruction Tour", a worldwide, publicity-free skateboarding tour where two teams (Team Hawk and Team Bam) compete for points; the losing team has to pay for all the expenses. The player joins Team Hawk—Tony, Burnquist, Mullen, Vallely, and Muska—against Team Bam—Bam, Koston, Wee-Man, Ryan, Sparrow, and Phil Margera (team captain and Bam's father).

In Boston, the first leg of the tour, Team Bam manages to win at the last minute, thanks to one of Paulie's stunts. As a result, Burnquist is eliminated via having a tennis ball shot at his genitals. Later on, in Barcelona, Team Hawk manages to take the lead again; however, the punishment for Team Bam is to have the player swap teams (in this case, Sparrow moves from Team Bam to Team Hawk and the player doing the opposite), much to Bam's relief and Tony's annoyance. At that time though, word has spread out about the World Destruction Tour, which was supposed to be a low-profile event but now is appearing on TV news because of a video of Bam and Koston letting a bull trash Phil's room.

The player and Sparrow swap back after Berlin. At that moment, an underground film "writer, producer, director" by the name of Nigel Beaverhausen wishes to bring the tour to the public but instead winds up being humiliated by Tony and Bam. After causing chaos in Bangkok (the skaters were en route to Australia, though Muska suggested stopping in Thailand), the tour lands in Australia. At the end of the leg, the player is supposed to be eliminated by being stripped down to their underwear and hit by mousetraps launched at them, but due to Mullen spotting a mathematical error in Team Hawk's points, the player has to compete with Sparrow—the loser will be eliminated from the tour.

The group ponders what to do when a skater kid arrives and shows them a video of the tour, created by Beaverhausen. Tony decides that whoever humiliates Beaverhausen will stay on the tour. Sparrow manages to steal his clothes but the player, with Nigel's clothes, goes off causing a rampage on Australian citizens, framing Beaverhausen; Sparrow is eliminated as a result.

At the end of the New Orleans leg, Nigel reveals that he filmed the whole tour, even before he met Tony and Bam in Berlin. Nigel proposes that if he is allowed to film the whole tour, he will pay for all the damages of the tour, which Tony and Bam accept after seeing the long damage bill (which stands at $21,117,551.84). Team Hawk performs a death-defying stunt called the "Equalizer" to tie up with Team Bam and is successful, but team members Vallely, Muska, and Mullen are arrested by the cops for stealing the helicopter used for the stunt, leaving the player and Tony for the final leg of the Tour: Skatopia, defined by Tony as "the skateboarding Mecca".

Team Hawk, though reduced to two members, performs well enough to win. Confident on his victory, Bam decides to blow up Skatopia. In order to save people from the imminent damage, Tony evacuates the skaters. Bam dares the player, who is still stuck in the back end of Skatopia, to exit the flaming park in a combo, which he considers impossible. The player takes the dare and secures the World Destruction Tour win for Team Hawk. Nigel wants Bam to give him the tape of the tour, which shows Phil in the toilet, shouting to his wife for more toilet paper. The tour ends with Bam and Tony humiliating Nigel once more, as Bam pulls down his pants on international TV.

During the credits, it is revealed that Tony and Bam have been officially banned from returning to all locations on the tour (even Thailand). Upon hearing the news, they reply, "Hey, good call."

Development

A sequel to ''Underground'' was announced on January 29, 2004. During development, developer Neversoft sent its members to locations featured in-game in order to get more acquainted with the areas.

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews from critics, with GameRankings scores ranging from 70% to 86% and Metacritic scores from 70% to 85%. It was nominated to be part of the Smithsonian's "The Art of Video Games" display for the PlayStation 2 section under the Action genre, but lost to Shadow of the Colossus. It received runner-up positions in ''GameSpot''s 2004 "Best Alternative Sports Game" and "Best Licensed Music" award categories across all platforms.

The plot received mixed comments. Douglass C. Perry of IGN found the plot to be less "endearing" than ''Underground''s, and while he enjoyed the story mode's gameplay, other staff at IGN did not, opting instead for the Classic mode. A reviewer from GameSpot enjoyed the story mode, but felt it was too short. In contrast, Tom Bramwell from Eurogamer felt there were plenty of levels, and saw the plot as enjoyable and unintrusive, if unintelligent. Ben Silverman of Game Revolution also thought the campaign was noticeably short, but also that "that's actually a blessing, though, because the plot and cut-scenes are pretty lame". Perry enjoyed the level design, but noted some slowdown in the levels due to their size.

Some critics noted that the gameplay had not been significantly upgraded from ''Underground''. Silverman and Perry were unimpressed with the short selection of moves introduced in ''Underground 2''. GameSpot agreed, but concluded that "while not all of these changes are all that great, the core gameplay in THUG2 is still very strong". In contrast, Bramwell felt that the Sticker Slap and additional flip and grab tricks were meaningful, enjoyable additions. The addition of Classic mode was praised by 1UP.com, who considered it superior to the story mode in terms of levels, while adding "the gamers weaned on PS1 Hawks will shed a tear, while newer fans will get a lesson on how things started".

The aesthetics were generally well-received. Perry praised the aesthetics, which he described as more cartoony, especially in the pro skater models, than those of previous ''Tony Hawk's'' games. Regarding the sound, he praised both the sound effects and the music. Silverman particularly commended the soundtrack's variety for including songs outside the traditional skating genres of punk, rock, and hip hop (namely Frank Sinatra's " That's Life" and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire"). Conversely, Bramwell greatly disliked the soundtrack, although he admitted it suited its purpose of accompanying skateboarding and also found the graphical upgrades to be minor and noted frequent issues with slowdown.

''THUG Pro''

''THUG Pro'' (''Tony Hawk's Underground: Pro'') is a community-made mod of ''Underground 2''. The mod's concept is to use ''Underground 2''s game mechanics in every level from every Neversoft game in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series for use in single-player and online multiplayer gameplay. The mod is in beta status, under current development, and has been continuously updated since its initial beta release in 2013.

Notes

References

{{Tony Hawk games

2004 video games
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EyeToy games
Game Boy Advance games
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Interactive Achievement Award winners
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Underground 2
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