Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix

"An excellent port!"

2004's T.H.U.G. 2 was an amazing game on all 3 systems. Now, it is time for the PSP to get in on some of that greatness that made T.H.U.G. 2 amazing. With an addition of 4 new levels and a nice little subtitle what could go wrong? Nothing except some small nuisances.

Graphics 9 T.H.U.G. 2 Remix looks spectacular. Character models look very nice, and environments hardly changed in this port. Some buildings reflect off water, sparks fly when you are doing a grind. It all comes out to a very nice presentation.

Sound 10 With dozens of Hip-hop, punk, and rock music titles to choose from, this is a guaranteed 10. Coupled with the stellar play list are some other sound effects. For example, when you grind on a rail, it sounds like your grinding on a rail. When your grinding on concrete, it sounds like your grinding on concrete. It's little things like this that make the sound amazing.

Controls 7 Yes, the controls aren't a shining point of this game, but they do get the done. The main problem is when you are skating you use the d-pad to move. When you get off your board, you have to use the nub. This is a confusing method because when you get off board during a combo, you have to use the nub, but when you want to continue your combo by getting back on your board, you have to switch back to the d-pad. This can be frustrating when you first start out in the game. Everything else works and feels fine.

Story 8 The story is quite simple. Tony Hawk and Bam Margera "recruit" pro skaters to compete in the World Destruction Tour. It ends up being Hawk vs. Bam and you are on Tony's team. Each team must rack up points by doing stunts. Which ever team that has the most points wins. The losing team, on the other hand, must pay for the whole trip.

Gameplay 9 The most important part of the game, its gameplay. This is where T.H.U.G. 2 Remix shines. You'll have blast breaking windows, destroying zombies, or saving lives. Although some off-board objectives do get tedious, it's not enough to make you stop playing the game. The things that make up for it though are complete player customization, implementing your face in the game and the goal-creation mode. The only thing that is is missing is the Map maker. I really enjoyed that in the console versions, but Shaba couldn't fit that in on a 1.8 gigabyte UMD.

Replay Value 9 There is definitely enough replay time in this game. Plus there are dozens of characters and skaters to unlock. You can also upgrade your stats to max so you can be the best skater when you are using the WiFi feature with your friends. Speaking of WiFi, the multiplayer component in T.H.U.G. 2 Remix is more a bonus than it is a mode. You need two copies of the game to play with a friend, but you can always just use the sharing of UMD trick.

Rent or Buy? If you are fan of the series buy this game. You won't be disappointed. If you didn't like the previous entries, then chances are you might want to rent this first.

Overall This port has most of what the console versions had except this version doesn't include a map maker and the controls take a while getting used to.

On the plus side, this game has great graphics, sound, replay value and gameplay.

Final score, 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/05