Tony Hawk's Underground

Offers subplots and jokes galore, and a nuevo-punk soundtrack with some hip-hop flair. [21 Nov 2003, p.L2T 46]

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.

With an enormous amount of customizable options, absorbing story mode and large mod community, T.H.U.G. provides just about anything a gamer could want in a skateboarding title without grabbing a board and hitting the streets. Combine that with the ability to "place" yourself into the game with the face mapping feature, and you have a product that could easily be considered one of the best games of the year.

While THUG offers some innovation, it remains fundamentally the same game...Fundamantally, Hawk hasn't evolved enough. [Jan 2004, p.112]

This game rocks! It is like "Grand Theft Auto 3" on a skateboard! I am so glad the developers chose to go in a new direction with the Tony Hawk franchise! This game is by far the best of all 5 titles to date!

The gameplay is still as stellar as ever: Neversoft's brilliant collage of on-the-fly experimentation and lighting-fast trick-popping is still as addictive as any drug and as intoxicating as any exotic woman.

In short, just about everything that made the series cool to this point is back and better than ever. The whole experience isn't unlike eating a watermelon: you'll need to spit out a few seeds, but otherwise there's no cooler fruit.

It’s a massive, exceptional product that expands every aspect of its predecessors without sacrificing much, though it’s a better game on the PS2 than the Xbox or Gamecube thanks to its great online functionality.

While at its heart the game is still an arcade-based skateboarding simulation that challenges players to perform tricks for points, the emphasis is less on Tony Hawk and other pro skaters and more on, well, nobodies like us.

The most notable disappointment is the lack of any online content. Yep, only PS2 THUGers have the ability to map their own face into the game and play multiplayer sessions online. But still, THUG for the 'Cube remains one of the best games you'll play this year.

The best skateboarding game out there and it's much more than Tony Hawk 4 ever was. That being said, while some of the new features are great, others just aren't up to the level of quality that we've come to expect from Neversoft.

This version has all of the things I both loved and hated about Underground - the awesome levels, the annoying story, the untouchable gameplay, and the inconsistently structured level goals. [Feb 2004, p.105]

While the classic Tony Hawk gameplay is present, and still fantastic after all this time, the new story mode doesn't make as dramatic of a change as it probably could have.

The multiplayer will ensure you and your friends will have as much fun with Underground as you did with previous games, and the single-player is a different experience even though the story is sub-par.

Play control and graphics are on par wth those of previous Tony Hawk games. [Jan 2004, p.160]

The game is so fun and addicting, and the environments so brimming with goodness, you'll care not. Too bad the art is lacking. [Jan 2004, p.64]

The arsenal of moves has expanded substantially, the most obvious of them is that you can run around, climb rooftops and controlling vehicles. The latter is poorly executed and is hardly fun, because the cars physics aren’t exactly convincing.