"So sick!!"

This is the fifth installment in the Tony Hawk series. I love skateboarding and this game!! I've played all of them and the game still hasn't gotten stale. The first game was released in the fall of 1999 and it was an absolute hit. A year later, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 came out. This game was a major hit. It got lots of perfect scores from magazines. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a Platinum (All 10's) and it even got Number 17 on it's 100 best games of all time. This game was better than the original in every way. It even introduced the most useful trick in all of the games, the manual. Also, it had the Create-A-Skater and Create-A-Park which were excellent additions. One of the best games ever!

Another year passed and in 2001, Tony Hawk 3 came out. It wasn't as good as THPS2 but it still was an awesome game. This game introduced the revert to the series. This and the original game are my least favorite games in the series. Next year, the new and improved Tony Hawk came out. This one was different than any of the previous because instead of going on 2 minute runs, you free skate and when your ready to do a goal, you talk to someone. That's when the timer began. This was a great addition. This allowed some new things like larger levels (Alcatraz was incredibly big) and larger levels allowed for more goals. 190 goals, baby! The new trick in this game was the Skitch. It allowed you to grab on to the back of cars. Pretty good addition.

One year later, this sucker came out. There are some major additions. But the biggest has got to be that you don't play as the pros, you play as yourself! And there's a story. Another major addition is you can get off your board. You can even get off your board during a combo and keep it going. Of course, you have a time limit to how long you can stay off before the combo stops. Also, why grab the back of a car when you can drive it. Yep, you can drive cars. There are a couple good goals with vehicles but there are some that are boring. The first goal that has you drive a car isn't to fun but the one in San Diego (both of them) are fun. There are some other new additions like Create-A-Trick, Create-A-Deck, and Create-A-Goal (in a created park or one of the ones in the Story Mode). Yep, this is definitely a new Hawk!

So, do all these new additions make a better hawk? Read on.

Graphics-8/10
The graphics are pretty nice. The characters are detailed well and the pros look just like there real-life counter part. But they aren't the greatest. I'm sure the PlayStation 2 could dish out better graphics. And some visuals look kind of bad sometimes. Still, these small problems can't really lower the score to much. So, overall, they're pretty good!

Sound/Music-10/10
I can't stop myself giving this game a 10 for its music. There's a mix of songs varying from rap, punk, and rock. Though I don't listen to the rap or half the rock, I do listen to the punk music. What can I say, I love the stuff. And THUG delivers some music!! There's Bad Religion, Dropkick Murpheys, NOFX, Janes Addiction... ahhhh. Even if though I don't listen to half the music the game provides I do listen to the Punk and Punk is good!!

The sound is great. Nice skateboard sounds like when the tail of the skateboard pops when it hits the pavement when you're ollieing. Man I love skateboarding. Anyway, the sound effects are good like exploding pineapples and cars going on fire. The voice acting is great. And they don't have cheap sound alike actors replacing the pros. Most of them talk on this one. Sure, Jamie Thomas stays silent and Elissa Steamer... well who cares about her. So, the sound effects are good and the music is kickin'. It deserves a perfect score of a ten.

Gameplay-9/10
The best part of the Tony Hawk series. The sick gameplay!! You go around large levels and talk to people to begin missions and progress the story. Like I said in the intro, if you read it, you play as yourself. You customize yourself, you make your own boards, you make your own tricks and if you must, you make your own goals and stages to put them in to fully customize your imaginary self. So, as you can see, this is the most customizable Hawk yet. But sadly though, you can customize your own voice. But hey, it's cool... I think.

The missions aren't like any other Tony Hawk ones. There are ones were you have to drive, walk, climb and of course, skate. Bustin' 31 mill combos are easier than ever. Anyway, it's done ''easily'' by being able to jump off your board, revert, skitch, manual and just skill (*cough*). The story mode is fun but the real fun is online! There's so much to do online. Play games, join a clan, upload data and download it, it's all good!! The downloading function is so awesome. You can go online, get a park, go offline, play through it, go back online, you get the picture. It's a lot of fun. And it's a whole lot of fun when you find real sick parks!

But nothing's perfect and THUG is no exception. Some of the driving missions are bland including the first one you do. But most of them are good. The game is also a lot like THPS4. Even though that's not a real big problem, some missions can get boring because you already did them in THPS4. Though these aren't real big problems, I still have to lower the score a little to a grand total of 9. Whoa!

Difficulty-10/10
There are four difficulty levels and one of them is called Sick! Sick!! When the difficulty level goes up, there are changes in the gameplay. Getting your stats up is harder, you have less time to do missions making them harder and there's differences at the end of the game. The difficulty levels are awesome and you'll want to play each one to experience each game.

Replay Value-10/10
You have to be kidding me. Every Tony Hawk game has replay value and this one is no exception. Being able to make goals gives this thing almost unlimited play time. And there's tons of things to do in Create-A-Park now. The difficulty levels, like I said before, will want you to play each one to see the differences in the goals and even the endings. There are tons of unlockables like cheats and characters. And if you have access to the online play, you will play this game over, and over, and over again!! You can download content (there's tons of things people submitted), and getting into different clans is so much. You can get into better clans after you get better! And doing 31 million combos in front of n00bs that think you cheat isn't that fun until you make fun of them and they start crying and leave. Heh, funny. So, as you can see, there's tons of replay value!

SpacePirate Sums it All Up!

Graphics-8/10
Sound/Music-10/10
Gameplay-9/10
Difficulty-10/10
Replay Value-10/10

Pros
-Good graphics
-Excellent music
-Great sound effects
-Tons of things to do
-Real fun!!
-Nice difficulty levels
-Incredible replay value
-Online play is awesome

Cons
-Graphics could've been better
-Some bland driving missions
-It's a lot like THPS4

Buy or Rent
Buy of course. This is one incredible game that shouldn't be missed by anyone who likes video games! It's a must play video game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/04