Tony Hawk's Underground

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Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground cover (PlayStation 2)
Tony Hawk's Underground cover (PlayStation 2)
Developer(s)Neversoft, (PC version,Beenox)
Publisher(s)Activision
EngineRenderWare
Platform(s)Xbox, GameCube, PS2, PC (Australia and Download only), Game Boy Advance, Mobile Phone
ReleaseOctober 27, 2003
Genre(s)Extreme sports
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Tony Hawk's Underground, also called THUG, is a skateboarding video game available for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Xbox platforms released in 2003. A PC version was released exclusively in Australia as a budget release in 2005. This version was ported by Beenox. It is the fifth game in the Tony Hawk's series. It features the ability to create a custom character, and supports face mapping and online play on the PS2 and PC versions. Unlike its predecessors, Underground focuses heavily on its story mode, and to this extent includes a large number of in-game cut scenes. THUG was also the first game in the series to introduce the ability to travel around levels on foot.

Game mechanics

File:Grind over McDonalds.jpg
Getting some air

For the first time in the series, the player can walk around, rather than skateboard. This is necessary to reach some locations and challenges. This is linked to the Caveman move; the player is now able to leave his skateboard in the middle of a combo of moves, and continue his combo elsewhere, as long as he or she continues within a time limit. This time limit is another skill that can be improved. Added to the moves in THUG is the wall push (skating toward, then pushing off of a wall), the wall plant (jumping into a wall, then pushing off), and acid drops (transferring from a ramp to a quarter-pipe).

The Story

The story follows the trials and tribulations of two at-first unknown skaters, the custom player character and his/her friend Eric Sparrow, in their quest for fame in the underground skateboarding scene. There are scripted encounters with Chad Muska and Tony Hawk, run-ins with local drug dealers and police, and a choice of teams to join when the player achieves success in the Tampa AM competition. Whichever team the player chooses, Eric also joins.

The player and Eric then make a video of rooftop tricks, which becomes spectacular when a police helicopter shows up and the player does a rooftop jump with McTwist over the chopper's spinning blades, which Eric captures on video. However as a result of copying this later Eric is made a pro, and the player swears revenge for what he perceives as unethical behavior.

The player decides to enter Slam City Jam in Vancouver, in the hope of making it to Pro status. The competition resolves into a confrontation between the player and his/her former friend. The player wins and is declared a Pro by the team manager and then goes in search of a sponsor. Meanwhile the team decides to go to an international Pro skateboard championship in Moscow. At the championship the player is reconciled with his/her friend Eric, and they perform a double performance together. Eric is crowned champion Pro skateboarder.

In Moscow, the player and his/her friend Eric are given the keys to a Russian tank, and they take it on a ride through town, but lose control of it. Eric blames the player, who is sent to jail. The team bails the player out but sacks him/her and leaves him stranded in Moscow, so he must get his passage home by doing favors for locals.

When he/she gets back the player finds that Eric has changed, and now only skates for the money. Eric reveals that he has been plotting to bring the player down. The player resolves to show Eric how wrong he is by making a "soul skating" video. This is very successful, and provokes Eric into challenging the player to a last skateboarding line in return for the Hawaii tape. The player wins, takes the tape and walks away from Eric, who curses as he leaves.

On a second run-through, there is an alternative ending. Instead of the player following Eric's line again, a cut scene shows him flashing tape at the player, but this time, instead of doing his line, in a final frustrated move, the player elbows Eric in the jaw, grabs the tape and walks away as Eric falls onto his car.

The game takes place in a number of levels based on various real cities, most in North America. These levels include:

The game also has four unlockable levels:

In THUG after getting out of Moscow one must make one's own team and complete a series of difficult stunts. For one's last challenge one faces Eric where one must hit all of his lines within a set time limit.

Because it is considered to a be a frustrating and tiresome goal no matter the difficulty setting, players only need to complete the goal once. On any subsequent plays through the game, the player will punch Eric when he challenges one to the goal, knocking him out and catching the tape in one motion.

Pro skaters

Secret characters

If all Gaps are collected one can also unlock:

File:THUG hotter than hell.jpg
Iron Man on stage as KISS play in the 'Hotter Than Hell' level

Unlockable levels

There are three unlockable levels hidden as "tokens" in game. In New Jersey, behind the Train Station, there is token to unlock "School II" from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. In Hawaii, there is a token to be collected if the player jumps into the wooden tiki statue, below the suspended freeway. A third token is located inside the large red building in Moscow, if the player smashes one of the ground level windows, opposite the fountain. Venice and the Hangar are unlockable from these tokens.

Also, in these unlockable levels, completing goals from their respective games will unlock secret areas too, eg grinding the helicopter in the 'Hangar' level, or grinding all three 'Roll Call' rails in the 'School II' level.

Also, if one beats any mode of story, one can unlock Hotter Than Hell, a level that features a KISS concert. This level is named after the kiss album (and song) "Hotter than hell". If you collect each of the KISS letters, the lights of the level will change, and the KISS band will appear onto the stage and play 'Rock n Roll All Night' 'Lick It Up' or 'God of Thunder'.

Soundtrack

There is a total of 77 songs in the game. They are listed below, alphabetically by Artist and with the track names and the groups into which the tracks are sorted; Punk, Hip-Hop and Rock/Other.

Features

  • Tony Hawk's Underground is the first Tony Hawk game not to feature Tony Hawk on its game cover, the second is Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.
  • In the Vancouver level, the hotel is called the Goodmount as opposed to the Fairmont hotel in Vancouver. Also, the grindable statue near the hockey rink is real, too.
  • In the New Jersey level, the modified car that Johnny Turbo lets one drive is a Honda CR-X.
  • In the New Jersey level, the modified car that Chad Muska and the Drug Dealers use is a Cadillac Escalade.
  • In the New York City level, near the police station, there is a Leeds United A.F.C. logo in graffiti on the wall.
  • When one's newly created character slams the drawer shut at the beginning of the game, a copy of the previous Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, can be seen lying on (and eventually falling off) the desk.
  • When creating one's character, Daisy, a character from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, can be seen on a poster. She is also available as a template when creating one's character.
  • The costume worn by the chef in front of the McDonald's on the New York level is somewhat similar to the uniform worn by Hiroyuki Sakai as Iron Chef French on the Japanese TV show Iron Chef.
  • In the Venice level where the "VB skinny gap" is, if one goes to the other side there is a wall that has the Club América Mexican team on it.
  • The difficulty level "hard" is replaced by "SICK" in this game.
  • T.H.U.G. is the only Tony Hawk game to use "shit" uncensored. It is said 4 times, once by Bam Margera when you win the Tampa AM, later in Arto Saari's video part near the end of the game, said again by Bam Margera. It's also said by Mike Vallely when you talk to him on your second visit to New Jersey. It is said again by the person jumping of a roof into a pool (heard faintly.) It is possible there was controversy over it, as it is not heard unless censored in future games. Strangely, the word "bitch" is both censored and uncensored on different occasions. It is uncensored when Johnny Turbo refers to drug dealers escaping ("Whoah, he's flippin' a bitch!"); and by the player when he/she realizes the bus is leaving without him/her ("Aw, son of a bitch!"). In the cut scene after you beat Eric's line, Eric calls you a bitch along with a barrage of other insults ("Slam City Jam and Tampa were nothin' but luck, ya little bitch!"). (For the aforementioned reasons, it was rated for "Strong Language" unlike other games in the series.)
  • In the Manhattan level, there are four different subway entrance locations. These entrances have signs identical to ones in New York. They also feature subway trains that exist in reality (J, M, Z, 4, 5, 6), and the name of the station is an actual subway station in lower Manhattan (Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station).
  • The (fictional) Mayor of Tampa, "Mayor Jed"'s name may be a reference to former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
  • The Level School 2 has 2 real life gaps; The Carlsbad Gap and The Leap Of Faith
  • The drug dealers at the train station in New Jersey are Jay and Silent Bob.
  • The Brooklyn Banks in the New York City level is an actual skate spot.

Awards

  • Gamespot's Best And Worst 2003 Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising

External links

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