Tony Hawk's Underground

rewrite Feb 17 2024

The Tony Hawk series is a PS1/PS2 era example of arcade game perfection. The evolution from the first Pro Skater until the fourth showed their ability to quickly iron out problems while introducing new mechanics. And by the time you get Tony Hawk’s Underground, it becomes clear that the only path forward involves stuffing this series with gimmicky nonsense. Every entry in the series from here on out would get more and more ambitious with its gimmickry until we hit the inevitable final destination, the point of no return: REAL skateboard. Tony Hawk: Ride. Your controller IS the skateboard. When there’s no room for new novelty, the novelty extends outside of the game itself.

Before the series took a tumble, however, Tony Hawk’s Underground released at a time where the dumb gimmicks were a welcomed addition to the formula. Getting tired of rolling around? Why not get off the skateboard and use your feet? You can walk around, climb up ladders, and hang onto ledges, giving you some extra maneuverability to find new spots across these levels. Several missions put these new movement options to use, giving the player plenty of objectives that involve climbing ladders and shimmying across ledges. While these ‘on foot’ missions feel more janky compared to the usual skating missions, their variety adds some extra silliness to the experience that doesn’t detract much from the game’s progression.

During the player’s story progression, you’re encouraged to come up with tricks of your own by utilizing yet another new feature: the Create-a-Trick mode. This tool is surprisingly comprehensive, letting you screw around with different aspects of the trick animations, with lots to choose from. You can speed up and slow down these animations as much as you want, so if you want your trick to be “10 frontflips in half a second lol”, there’s nothing stopping you from implementing it. Add this onto the extensive character customization options, and customizable skateboard decks, and you have a skating game that truly wants to make this experience all about YOU and your own creativity.

Not every new feature is genius, of course. Perhaps someone in the publishing branch is to blame for the inclusion of drivable cars in every level of the story mode, with multiple ‘driving’ missions scattered throughout the game. Most of these missions are tolerable, but when they get bad, such as the flying blimp in Slam City Jam, or the horrible lawnmower missions in Vancouver, they become a complete nuisance. And if they’re not a nuisance, they’re often boring. The obvious takeaway from these missions is “why the hell would I want to drive around these skateboarding levels when I can just use… my skateboard?”

After all, these levels are designed intricately around combos. Wires, pipes, ledges, ramps, stairs, rails; These are all scattered around every level, always giving the player something to hop onto. This has always been a strong point of the Tony Hawk series from the beginning, and the level design in Underground is some of their strongest work by far. Contrast big, empty open worlds with these compact skating levels. You always have little areas to investigate, hidden secrets to find. They have verticality in addition to their free-roaming openness, layering these levels enough that it will take multiple passes to see everything they have to offer. In addition to the story levels, you’ll find a few returning, polished up versions of old level layouts from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2. If you’re seeking even more level content, the game has its own Create-a-Park mode, as well!

Out of all the ambitious additions to Tony Hawk’s Underground, the biggest ‘back of the box’ inclusion is the new story mode. This is no joke, Underground, a skateboarding arcade game, has an actual STORY in it, with voice acting, characters, a plot, and YOU. This is a story that is shockingly effective, as people still remember the game’s twists and turns even today. Eric Sparrow, a character designed to be a backstabbing asshole, still lingers in the memory of anybody who’s played through what boils down to a 10 hour game. Not that you’d need to play Underground purely for the story, but it works well as a motivator to keep progressing through the game, so see how the protagonists’ comeback arc comes into fruition.

Despite the seemingly simple gameplay, Underground is packed with content. Tons of different objectives, and gaps as well, to make sure you explore every nook and cranny of each level. And of course, the soundtrack is insane. Over 70 tracks of premier skater material covering various genres within punk, metal, and hip hop. Tons of obscure gems as well as certified classics lined up here, making the Underground experience more memorable than it was already. This is a game that was designed to burn itself into your memory permanently, and it’s clear that is exactly what it's done for me.