Tony Hawk's Underground 2

"Jackass plus Tony Hawk? A perfect combo."

This game is definitely a huge step up from all of the other Tony Hawk games. Definitely great. Sure, there are a few mess-ups and near-impossible goals, but the essence of this game really lies in the humor. A fabulous game, at the least.

Customization: Wonderful, you get to create a park. You can also create tricks, goals, skaters... you can practically make your own game! There are tons of features for the skaters, you can even send in a picture and have a skater created just like it! The park feature is a bit bland, seeing as the actual levels in the game are so colorful, but hey, it works. Creating goals is fun; you can control what task-givers say, how long you have to complete the goal, and ultimately, how fun it is! Neversoft has done a wonderful job with the customization feature.

Game play: The storyline is fun and interesting: it brings Tony Hawk-style skating into a hilarious episode of Jackass. You travel around the world, making people angry at you, destroying things... how much better would it get? A strange Beaver-something guy is in your way, and you get to totally humiliate him! Sure there are some absolutely crazy and insane goals, like saving New Orleans from zombies by doing airwalks over a statue, but hey, it's Tony Hawk. This game has the boundless energy required to pull of weird goals.

Some of the goals are quite pointless, however, and make no sense at all. In every level, you have to find a secret skater and a pro skater you have picked to help you. Seriously, who would want Big Foot with a chainsaw skateboard or a matador on their team? The worst part is, you have to actually search for the teammate that isn't supposed to be hidden! You get to choose from a few pros at the beginning of a level. He gets placed somewhere, and you go searching high and low before you realize he's standing on a street corner waving at you.

Something I found to be a bit of a glitch was that most goals can be completed by anyone on your team. Only certain goals (ones that require vehicles) absolutely must be completed by a specific team member. If a goal was intended for say, a tagger, your main character could also complete that goal.

I do, however, love the points system that the game uses to keep track of goals, with each one you complete earning you more and more points. You move to the next level when you have enough points and you can go back to that city at any time. Although the storyline might be wrecked a little if you go back, you can always watch a few cutscenes more than once.

Another con: Your "level destruction" doesn't get saved. For example, if you blow up Berlin (yes, there is a way to destroy most of it by grinding a simple rail) you have to do it all over again the next time you load your game. Letting the bull out in Spain more than once just gets repetitive. Letting the bull out in Spain just gets repetitive. Letting the bull out in Spain just gets... okay, you get the idea. Still, most don't mind it, so we won't let this drag the score down too much.

Music/ Sound: There are some cool bands on here, and some good songs. The music isn't horrible, but it's not great either. Just average all around. The sound is fairly decent, and I love the sound when you complete a goal. The voice acting is nice, too.

Graphics: Well, the levels are fairly large and provoke exploration, and they also live up to their names... at least a few of them. (Trust me, Boston looks nothing like it does in real life.) You can tell characters apart from each other, everything seems to flow pretty smoothly, so the graphics aren't bad. They're no Final Fantasy, but close enough. ;)

Controls: Easy enough, you press such and such button in combination ith such and such direction to do such and such trick... not hard. They shouldn't take too long to learn.

Storyline: It's funny, there are some cool characters, and you get a nice feeling of satisfaction when you see the final cut scene. There are a few weird jokes that seem to be aimed more toward older men than teenagers, but they fit in nicely. The characters and dialogue will usually leave you laughing, and the whole thing is put together wonderfully. Great job, writers, great job. :)

Overall: You might want to try this game before you buy, especially if you are new to the series, but if you're looking for something to do on a rainy Saturday, pick this up. It's funny, witty, and clever in the best and worst ways. Jackass and Tony Hawk? They make a perfect combination.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/07