Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2)

Tony Hawk's underground - a fantastic game. By now, most people with a PS2 will have played one of the two predecessors on the console (TH 1 & 2 were PS1 games, TH 3 & 4 graced the black box) and will know the fun that the game generates for not entirely obvious reason - if you think about it, a game described as "well, you sort of skate around some cities a bit" sounds rubbish - but it isn't. The tricks are cool, and most importantly, there's a real sense of satisfaction in pulling them off. The game engine is complex yet intuitive - you soon realise that random button bashing doesn't work and quickly get to grips with what does, but only get really good with hours and hours of practice (which is all fun). Then you start trying to show off, fall over, get back up and start all over again...
The new mission structure to the game works well in the main, except for the sneak about missions and the car missions. Okay, it sounds good to be able to nick cars a la GTA and sneak about a la Metal Gear but it's not executed well and frankly I bought the game to skate, so these parts of the game were lulls in the excitement.
The levels are bigger and better than ever before. This is best demonstrated by the bonus levels (in addition to the 7 or so for the main game), some of which are lifted from Tony Hawks 2, and feel empty and restrictive in comparison to the dynamic and trickable environments cooked up for T.H.U.G.
In short, the story mode is good, but the real fun comes after that as you explore the levels and rack up high scores, and play multi-player with your mates. I love it, and I don't even have the online capability that will presumably improve it further for those as do. 5 stars without any doubt - where the series goes from here is anyone's guess, though I hope they ditch the cars...

Massive! Awesome! Cowabunga! Well maybe not the last one, eh? Tony Hawks has been around the Playstation (1 and 2) for about 4 years. It is has been in the top 10 best selling games every years since!

For those who were getting slightly tired of the same Tony Hawks format, prepare for something completely different. Imagine if you will, GTA Vice City with flips and ollies!

T.H.U.G, as it will be nicknamed is all about taking your board to the street. Forget career mode, grinding into the void comes story mode. Travel around the major cities of the U.S and Europe and collect missions of people from the street. You then complete these missions either on your board, on feet or in a stolen vehicle! Out goes the extremely annoying 2 minute timer, featured in the previous Tony's and now you are free to complete missions in your own time whilst smacking people with your board on the way for fun!

It has loads of new features. You can create you own tricks and parks and perhaps the most impressive feature of the game is that you can send in a digital picture of yourself to Neversoft's website and they will create your own skater which you can use in the game!

This WILL be the biggest and best game of 2003. GTA 4 and PES 3 might be coming out later in the year. But this ain't Tony Hawks 5, this is T.H.U.G and it's gonna be massive and with 3 difficulity levels it should also ensure that Tony Hawks veterans are not busting one-million point combos for fun!

It's gonna be Sick (that's street for good!)

The 3rd Tony Hawks game on PS2. Download your face into the game using network adapter. Get off your board at any time to grab, jump and climb to places which would have been out of reach before. Still cars and drive them around the location. Proper story mode with allies, enimies and many twists. Create your own tricks by combining grabs, flips, spins and specials together. Design and make your own decks to use whenever. Play online using network adapter. Game includes fantastic soundtrack with 75 songs (rock, punk and hiphop) including KISS and Queens Of The Stone Age. Play as 17 pro skaters (not available in story mode) including Tony Hawks and Andrew Reynolds.

Overall, a skatebaording game which goes beyond skateboarding. Easily the best most in-depth extream sports game available to the PS2. A must buy for fans of the genre and for a good multiplayer experience.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Lifespan: 8/10