Tony Hawk's Underground

"You're no THUG! You're a poser!"

Tony Hawk's Underground is one of the best games on the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox, so I don't understand why the GBA version was so terrible. I guess the GBA couldn't handle this game, and I'll tell you why.

Graphics 6/10
I don't game for graphics, like some people I know. I'm only doing this part of the review because some people won't played games based on graphics. Let's just hope that if you are one, you will stay away from this terrible game. The character models look pretty deformed. Pixels stand out and the character just looks unnatural. The backgrounds look half-way decent, and this is the GBA we are talking about so I won't go on any further. I'm not expecting PS2 graphics, but this game looks horrible compared to GBA games like Star Wars - Jedi Power Battles and Metroid - Zero Mission and even it's prequel Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.

Sound -10/10
Blarg. First word that came to my head when the first level loaded up and the music started playing. Blarg. First off, I hate Punk music. I think punk music is a terrible abomination. Secondly, the GBA's speaker system isn't Lynyrd Skynyrd concert quality. Put them both together and you get blarg. The sound effects are all well and good, I really don't mind them that much, except for the fact that your character only makes one noise when he/she falls crashes, so it gets kind of annoying. I usually play without volume anyway.

Gameplay - 5/10
I really don't know what went wrong here. The previous GBA Tony Hawk titles were pretty decent gameplay wise, so why not this one? Everything just seems so stale. The worst thing is, you have to unlock tricks, so in the very beginning of the game, you can only do one trick, and you have to do the lame training missions to get the rest. That gets very old very fast. If you've played the other GBA games, you would know how to do everything the minute you picked up the GBA, so it's nothing new to you.

If you want a good skateboarding title for your portable gaming system, pick up Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, it'll save you a lot of money, and a lot of time. I give this game a 4, and only because I'm feeling generous.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/04