Tony Hawk's Underground

"The Tony Hawk Saga Continues"

Gosh, I hate giving out perfect 10's. But I believe this game is perfect. I can remember back a long time ago, being at a friends house and renting Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. At first we didn't know how to play it, but after a while, we didn't get a minute of sleep, we just couldn't stop playing this great game. Of course, back then the graphics were great. But when I got Tony Hawk 4, I looked back and played The first Tony Hawk game, and notice how much they have improved in the graphics, and controls. The Tony hawk games have done so much for gaming in general. I appreciate everything they have done.
Then, I remember hearing that the Tony Hawks Pro Skater series is going to stop. But it was going to be replaced with Tony Hawk's Underground. I didn't know much about it, but I knew it was going to be good. But I didn't know it was going to be this good. Everything about this game is perfect. So I will start now:

Gameplay

The game is very fun to play. Once you start, you just don't want to stop because the thought of controlling this character through his life of trying to make it to the top is a great concept. And to make it even better, you can scan your face in so your character looks like you.
The difficulty of the game is perfect. You can pick out what you want it to be for the whole game. If it is the first Tony Hawk game you've gotten, you pick the easy difficulty. If you've been a fan of it since the first one was released, you can pick the hardest difficulty. And if you finish the game, you can do it again in a harder difficulty. Now, you can even get off your skateboard, at any time and walk around. To extend combo's and everything. This makes the game so much better. Another thing, that I thought I'd never see in a Tony Hawk game, is you can now drive cars. You can't steal them, but you can do missions and stuff with them, which adds so much to the game.
You can even create a trick in this game. This game allows you to do everything a real skater could do. That's what makes it so perfect. No other game is like this yet. And I don't think we'll be seeing another one like it anytime soon.

Story

It all starts out one day, when your fixing your board up, and your friend comes up to the window, and holds up a poster about a pro skater coming to do a demo in their town. They then leave, and see how he has so much money, and an awesome car. Your character later meets the pro skater, and he gives you a new board, and tells you to try to get sponsored. Then, you do get sponsored, and enter a skating contest. You then get there, and find out that your friend didn't sign you up for it and you can't skate in it. But he goes in to skate. After that, you meet Tony Hawk, and he sees you skate. When he sees you, he says he can pull a few strings, and gets you into the competition.
The rest of the story pretty much works its self out the way you want. That's what makes the story so great, and the game so much fun to play.

Graphics

Great as always. Although there really isn't much of an improvement from THPS 4, the graphics are still great. Especially in the Story Cut Scenes. Everything in the graphics are great. The graphics are not choppy at all. They are smooth and perfect. Which makes the game even more fun to play.

Sound

The Sound in this game is great. The sound of the skate board rolling. It's different depending on what type of terrain you’re on. That makes the game even more fun. The sound of the pedestrians as you nearly hit them could have been better.
And the Soundtrack in this game is also good. Like in all the other ones. They always pick out the best music for the games. They should make a Tony Hawk's Underground Soundtrack CD. You'll love everything about the sound in this game.

Replay Value

The Replay Value in this game is Very High. After you beat it once, you want to beat it again. There are even alternate endings to make it even better. It's what makes this game, and all Tony Hawk games so great.

I think you should definitely buy this game. Because renting it isn't long enough. You'll be playing this game for more than a month. It's worth $50.

Pro's
You can Drive Cars
You can Get off your skate board
Create a trick
Create a deck
Good Graphics
Good Soundtrack
you can scan your face in, so you are the main character.

Con's
None

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/03