Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (THUG2 from here in) is the second in the “underground” series, and 6th in the Tony Hawk Skater series. The original THUG was a great departure from the tradition of the Tony Hawk games, by placing you as the central character going across the world in a cohesive storyline, rather than choosing your favourite Pro-Skater and haphazardly moving from park to park. It introduced two new modes of transport for your skater – off the board walking and vehicles. The THUG2 doesn’t offer too much different apart from a wacky new story, and comes across feeling as an update rather than a fully-fledged sequel.

This time the series has gone totally MTV, featuring Bam Margera and the loons from the TV series “Jackass”. The story sees you join Team Hawk with other pro skaters in a race around the world on the World Destruction Tour. Your goal is to smash and break as much as humanly possible in each city that you travel to, beating Team Bam’s score. The story is, as you would expect if you’ve seen the TV show, puerile, immature and at times gross, but it has it’s moments of laugh out loud hilarity, especially if you’re a fan of this unique blend of humour. Some people may be put off by this, but remember – skating is first and foremost an activity of fun. Tony, Bam, Steveo, Bob Burnquist, and all those guys are great mates who really do crazy stuff both on and off the camera. To make it into some kind of serious endeavour, especially in a computer game, totally misses the point.

In Story mode, you build up your skaters stats by performing tricks. Following the formula of the previous THUG game, the more tricks you perform the better your skater becomes. For example, if you do a double kick flip your kick trick meter goes up, and to go up again you need to pull off a triple kick flip. It’s a nice way of building up your character, but if you’re patient enough you can max out the stats on the first level, making the other levels just a little more easier. Throughout each level there are many light posts and glass windows to smash through, and this is where the destruction part comes into play. Each level has some kind of structure which can be deformed by tricking in a particular place. For example, on the first level grinding the cannons whilst your board is on fire shoots a building under construction allowing you access to more places to skate.

There are no mindblowing new stunts this time around. All the tricks from series are here, and the new tricks are simply cherry on an already scrumptious apple pie. There’s the ‘freakout’ where hitting the Y button causes your skater to flip out and kick or smash the board, and this can be the starting point to linked combos. There’s a sticker slap which replaces the wall plant, and you can get off the board and tag graffiti on walls. Vehicles have been made a little better – you won’t be racing cars around this time, but be using smaller motorised vehicles. They handle much like the skateboard, but are far more ‘extreme’. This lack of new moves may well be the first indication that Neversoft may finally be clutching at straws with the franchise.

For those who didn’t like the direction THUG took the series, the game also ships with a “classic mode”. This takes it back to the old school and instead of the outrageous antics of Story mode, you’re presented with the classic THPS challenges, such as collect the letters S K A T and E, and timed trick modes. This mode is far more satisfying, as you feel compelled to explore the maps a lot more in the effort to get greater scores. You can also unlock some of the most popular maps from the series, although if you’re a fan of the series you would have skated these to death already.

The extreme customisation is back once again, and as well as creating the perfect skater, graffiti tag, tricks and skate parks, you can now make your own goals. It’s a little bit fiddly, but then again you’re basically given the tools to make your own version of the game! However, the only way these can be shared is via memory card swapping – again Xbox Live! is totally overlooked and not only can we not play against another person online, we can’t even share user created goodies. Multiplayer is limited to two people on one console – this time around not even system link play is included. The multiplayer modes are as numerous as in the previous title, but yet again the lack of innovation here suggests that Neversoft are running out of ideas.

The Tony Hawk series has never been a great looking series, and THUG2 is no exception. It’s not an ugly game, it’s just no Halo. However, the massive environments and rock solid framerate more than make up for this, and this time around there is an over-the-top sensibility, almost cartoonish in feel, and it works really well with the outrageous activities in Story mode. The Soundtrack on the other hand has always been a big stand out for the series, and again THUG2 has an outstanding number of tracks. This time there is the usual suspects – EMO, Rap, Old school hiphop and punk – but there are also some quite surprising tunes in the form of songs by Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Joy Division. And, if you like graffing and grinding to the classy sounds of Mozart, you always have to option of importing your own playlists stored on your Xbox.

Conclusion:
THUG2 shows signs of the franchise weakening. There is no real improvement to the gameplay – you essentially have THUG with a few nips and tucks here, more whistles and bells there, but nothing in the way of a major upgrade. This can be seen as a good or bad thing – the gameplay is still as solid and exciting as it always has been, and if it ain’t broke… But the question has to be asked – how much longer can THQ and Neversoft carry this beast in this form? After 5 years the gameplay is getting a little stale, and whilst the game isn’t ho-hum, it’s not exactly mindblowing either. The lack of multiplayer online play is a serious oversight and would give the game greater longevity. Even 4 player split screen would have been nice.

Pros:
Funny story if you’re into the whole “Jackass” thing
Inclusion of “Classic Mode” in case you don’t.
Massive amounts of hiddens and unlockables
Great level of detail in customisations

Cons:
No real improvements over the previous game
No online or system link multiplayer

82/100