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Tony Hawks Underground Review - Xbox

Have you ever wanted to become a pro skater? Ever played a Tony Hawk's game, wishing you were a pro, just like your character? Now you can learn just how hard it is to make the big guns in Professional Skating. Acid Drop into your own adventure with your home-made custom skater, and compete in several different locations to make it onto the Pro Tour. Tony Hawk's Underground is the skating game you've been waiting for, and it's by far the best skating game ever made, setting very high standards in the skating game world. Tony Hawk's Underground delivers what THPS 4 promised, with style and sharpness.

Gameplay

Tony Hawk's Underground as mentioned above is your very own simulation of a skater's life before he becomes pro. You have an arch rival, you'll meet plenty of new people wanting you to do stuff for them, and the goals are more interesting than ever. The only thing missing from Tony Hawk's Underground is the girl! In each level, there is a certain goal that involves driving some sort of vehicle. After driving this vehicle, it then becomes unlockable to drive around in Free Skate and other modes, which adds to the thrill of the map. It doesn't handle like a car in Project Gotham or Colin McRae, but it's better than not having cars at all.

Your home town is New Jersey; however you won't stay there for very long. Soon you'll find yourself touring the world with locations such as New York and Russia. The levels aren't actually all that big, they'd be about the same size as those in THPS4, maybe a little smaller which is unfortunate given it's a newer game. There's so much packed into the levels however, that you'll be finding something new every time you play. Without much (if any) competition in the skating area, the Tony Hawk's series has been able to develop into an exceptional series, and we can only hope for it to get better from here.

All the manoeuvres are back from the old Tony Hawk's games, and they just keep getting better. What's new about Tony Hawk's Underground is that you can get off your board and run around, or climb buildings/walls to find a better jump, or a secret. This makes getting that secret tape a little easier, but sometimes they look impossible to reach. Along with being able to walk around, there are now a whole heap of new moves when jumping back onto your board, such as the traditional Acid Drop that all pro skaters do when they enter a Halfpipe for the first time. You can now design your own trick too, which needs to first be unlocked in Story mode of course, but you can design exactly how you want your skater to move when he's grinding that pole, or when he's doing (continued next page)