Tony Hawk's Underground

The year: 1999.  The date: August 31.  The game: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.  Originally scoffed at by many gamers (myself included), we all shut our mouths the moment we actually played this beauty.  The feel of the game was unreal; sliding across flat surfaces, jumping with ease, grinding on rails, kicking off glorious flip tricks in the air, riding up a ramp and catching huge air... you could never do things like this in a game before, especially with such ease and fluidity, stringing together moves into huge combos.  The game was great fun, and it unfortunately led to a slew of imitators.

But none were good enough to take the throne.  One year later, the sequel was the only game with a real chance to go beyond the precedents the first game had set.  By introducing the manual, the developers did something that's rare in a sequel: they allowed you to play the game completely different with the inclusion of this new move, or completely ignore it.  The manual was a move that could potentially link together any move that ends in a jump - whether it be a plain old ollie, a kick-flip, a grind, et cetera.  The third game took this idea a step further and implemented the revert.  It was sort of a spin that, when activated just as you're landing on a vert ramp, allowed you to keep your combo going.  Right after the revert you could go into a manual - potentially allowing for a never-ending combo.

The fourth game added almost nothing gameplay-wise to the mix.  Aside from a spine transfer that could come in handy, the entire affair seemed like it was pulled straight from an excellent competing game, Aggressive Inline.  Many were upset, and concerned that the series was headed downhill.  The once-innovative champion of the "extreme sports" genre felt like rehashed drivel for anyone who had played Aggressive Inline.

Thankfully, developer Neversoft has redeemed itself with this fifth installment in the series.  No longer carrying a number, the game carries the word Underground and a slew of significant improvements.

First of all, everything in the game has been polished up.  Almost every animation looks smooth as butter and molds right into the next action, whether that be a jump, a kick, a grab, or a crash (lots of both painful and humorous bails have been added).  Amid from the manual, revert, and spine transfer introduced in past games, a series of somewhat awkward moves had slowly trickled into the gameplay and finally feel like they work perfectly: there are flatland moves that can be easily done while in a manual; you can change your stance in a grind; you can perform different types of jumps instead of just ollies; you can earn more points while riding in "switch" mode.

All of these elements have been around in past games, but they were often never brought to anyone's attention because you never really had to use them.  Thanks to some great level design and a bevy of interesting new goals, you'll find yourself using these techniques and ultimately incorporating them into your freestyle skating, making you a better player overall.  The stat points system has also been changed - although, admittedly, it's changed every year, it seems that Neversoft finally found a way that works pretty well.  You can level up your skills by completing simple tasks that actually relate to them.  For example, to raise your rail level, you might have to hold a grind for twenty seconds.  To improve your spin level, you might have to execute a number of grab moves in a single combo.

While all of this is fine and dandy, the real addition to the game comes in the fact that you can actually get up off of your board and walk around.  With a quick tap of the Z button, your skater hops off his board and is free to run and jump at your bidding.  The actual movement is limited, unfortunately.  Controls feel sort of stiff, jumping has a bit of a lag to it, the camera doesn't work too well, and everything just feels like a basic Tomb Raider clone.  Indeed, things need work.

Does that mean the move is totally useless?  Quite the contrary, actually.  This new technique really shines when you're trying to score big points, not when you want to explore the levels.  During a combo, you can tap the Z button to hop off.  A little timer appears and rapidly counts the remaining time you have to get back on your board.  If you get back on in time and move into a manual or a grind or what have you, you'll still be racking up points from before you stepped off.  This not only looks cool - aside from setting you up for some potential tricks, it allows you to gather some more speed that you might have slowly lost while in a combo.  Ever have a great combo going, and you're slowing down, and you want to stretch it out a bit more - but can't?  This new move fixes that.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, when you're going really fast and feel that you're out of control, you can stop and get yourself situated and positioned before you make any hasty decisions.  The icing on the cake, though, is that this move is completely optional, just like the manual.  There were times when I had completely forgotten about it and did just fine, and when I remembered to use it I had a blast working it into my play style.

As I hinted at earlier, the level design is really great.  Each of the levels are big, but the design feels tightly knit and comes together really well.  In Tony Hawk 4, Neversoft tried cramming so much into each level so that you could collect S-K-A-T-E letters, take part in one-minute three-heat competitions, and so forth.  Not this time around - the missions take advantage of each level, and seem appropriate and fresh all the time.  Sometimes you're asked to perform a special trick, complete a series of moves yelled out at you on the fly, get a high score in a certain amount of time, hit a number of spots in just one combo, reach a certain area by using your repertoire of abilities - the list goes on.  Collection fests are kept to a bare minimum, and are never annoying when they pop up.  In fact, the only really bad objectives are the ones that involve driving vehicles.  I don't know what Neversoft was thinking when they added these to the game, but the handling on every automobile is really, really bad, and the physics are totally off.  Luckily, there are very few of these missions, so you won't have to suffer for more than ten minutes or so in total.

I haven't even touched on the number of modes in the game.  New this time around is the story mode, which plays out like an interactive movie with you as the central character.  It tells the tale of a no-name New Jersey skater punk who rises up to the big leagues and gets betrayed by his best friend in his prime.  This skater, of course, is created using the game's Create-A-Skater feature, which has so many options now that I couldn't possibly list a decent fraction of them.  You can adjust skin color, hair styles and color, clothing, shoes, body scale, and so much more.  You can still create skate parks, too.  They can be bigger than ever before, and the amount of objects is higher than ever before.  There's a cool rail feature that allows you to lay out rails as if you were making a vector model on an image editor.  You can even add in your own customized goals now.  But completely new this time around is the Create-A-Trick option, which allows you to put together tricks, adjust them, add in spins and flips, and come up with something of your own that can be as real or completely off the wall as you want.  The feature is pretty basic, but fun to play with.  Expect it to be fleshed out even more in the next installment.  Also new is the ability to design a deck - in the past, you could only pick your artwork, wheel color, and grip-tape style.  Now, you'll actually have the option to insert and adjust two designs (how about a crazy pink design with bubbles on top, or maybe some stars?), and up to four layers of letters or graphics.  The amount of customization in this game will blow your mind.  You can even earn different themes that will change the look of the game's menus and on-screen indicators.  Insanity!

The production values in this game are great.  Graphics are sharp, with vibrant textures, smooth models, and animation that'll make you squeal with joy.  Levels have so many different structures and landmarks that you'll never get lost for long.  There's a hint of slowdown in crowded areas, but with detailed levels, lots of pedestrians, and even other people skating around the levels, it's expected - and it's never so bad that the game is ever unplayable.  Sound is also fantastic.  Sound effects like grinding, kicking your board, and riding over different surfaces all sounded great in the past, and they feel especially vibrant this year.  I'm not sure what it is exactly about them, but really immerse you in the game.  To top it all off is the game's soundtrack - with over eighty (EIGHTY!) different tracks by dozens of artists (Bad Religion, Jane's Addiction, The Addicts, The Transplants - to name a miniscule few) you're bound to find something you like.  You can even turn off individual genres like rock, punk, and hip-hop, if you have something against them.  Very cool.

All in all, Tony Hawk's Underground has really impressed me.  It brings a refreshing vibe to the series with the ability to get off your board.  Everything is as polished as one could possibly imagine.  The story mode actually works well and incorporates some great level objectives in the game.  The truckload of customization features (Create-A-Park, -Skater, -Trick, -Goal, -Deck...) make the game really feels like it's YOUR game.  The amount of customization is mind-blowing.  While there's definitely room for improvement (controlling your character on-foot, fixing the driving segments, and adding even more customization options!), the shortcomings of Tony Hawk's Underground only make me antsy for the next installment.  Bring it on, Neversoft!  Tony Hawk is back.

Gameplay: 9.5

It feels better than ever before, and the addition of being able to get off your board is really refreshing.  But just like the manual in THPS2, it's rarely necessary to use if you don't like it and can be used at your leisure.  Not everything is perfect - the on-foot controls need some work, the occasional driving segments are horrid - but that can't dampen the fun any.  In fact, they just make me want to play Tony Hawk 6 even more!

Graphics: 9.0

The graphics are really good, with detailed environments, complete with colorful textures, great-looking models, and animation that'll rock your socks off.  There's a touch of slowdown, but nothing that ever weakens the gameplay.

Sound: 9.7

With the sole exception of the Xbox having an edge in this category (it does offer custom soundtracks), the sound is absolutely marvelous in this game.  Sound effects are luscious, the music selection is great (and expansive), and even the voice acting is really good!

Concept: 9.0

Tony Hawk once again goes above and beyond the competition, proving to us that Tony Hawk 4's lack of innovation has been very much made up for.  On-foot walking (that can be intertwined with combos!), fresh level objectives, and a ton of moves that have been improved so they actually feel really useful make this one of the most enthralling skateboarding titles ever made.

Difficulty: Medium

For the first time ever, Tony Hawk features different difficulty levels.  It's easy for any newbie to jump in at an easier setting, and the higher settings feel perfectly balance in terms of challenge for advanced players.  And for those who are really talented, of course, there's a really challenging setting available.

Multiplayer: 9.0

Multiplayer is worth playing!  Classic modes like Graffiti, HORSE, and Trick Attack return alongside a crazy new mode called Firefight, where players can launch fireballs from the undersides of their skateboards.  The better combos they rack up, the more powerful their fireballs become.  There's something here for everyone!

Overall: 9.5

It's nothing short of a marvelous title.  Even though I felt the series had been going downhill, Tony Hawk's Underground made me a believer again.  With its great innovations, high level of polish, and great level design and objectives - not to mention the load of customization options - I simply couldn't put it down.  You won't be able to, either - go out and grab your copy today!