Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Overview

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is a skateboarding game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision or the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC on October 4, 2004. The sixth installment of the long-running Tony Hawk franchise, the game features a new story mode starring the player's custom skater (similar to its predecessor, Tony Hawk's Underground). In the story, the player is kidnapped by professional skaters Tony Hawk and Bam Margera, only to find that they are staging a "World Destruction Tour", a crazy unpublicized around-the-world skateboarding tour (complete with intense vandalism and complete havoc, similar to the Jackass franchise) where the skaters (both professional and novice) are split up into two teams: Team Hawk and Team Bam. As part of Team Hawk, players try to complete crazy objectives in each location to earn "points" for their team.

Along with the new Story Mode, the game includes a new Classic Mode, which replicates the Career Mode from the first three Tony Hawk games (consisting of ten-goal, two-minute sessions), complete with the return of Stat Point pickups. Along with the levels from Story Mode, Classic Mode includes levels from the first three Tony Hawk games: School and Downhill Jam from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Philadelphia from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and Airport, Canada, and Los Angeles from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Warehouse from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is also expanded in both Classic Mode and Story Mode as the game's tutorial level.

Two handheld versions of the game were released: one for the Game Boy Advance (developed by Vicarious Visions) and one for the PSP. The Game Boy Advance version, released at the same time as the console versions, maintains the 2D isometric gameplay from the handheld versions of the previous five installments of the franchise. The PSP version, released on March 15, 2005, is titled Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix and features four new levels.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2, like previous installments in the series, features crossover characters from different franchises as hidden playable skaters: Shrek (a cartoon ogre from the DreamWorks franchise of the same name) and an American World War II soldier from the Call of Duty franchise. Players can also unlock the Tony Hawk model from the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as a playable skater.

Story Mode

The player begins the game by creating a character, or using the default created skater. The game starts when the created skater (or the default) is seen ripping it up at a local spot, and is promptly grabbed and tossed into a black van. Inside they find other skaters who have been kidnapped. Then, Bam Margera and Tony Hawk explain their plans for the first annual World Destruction Tour, a "sick-as-hell" around-the-world skateboarding tour. The main goal of the World Destruction Tour is to create havoc, and have a good time.

The skaters then split into two teams, Team Hawk and Team Bam, and the player is picked last out of the group, but joins Team Hawk. The tour goes to real world locations like Boston, Spain, Australia, New Orleans, and more, with the two teams competing for points by doing silly and dangerous stunts. The story is very lighthearted and just plain silly at times, featuring such characters like Big Foot, and skeletons doing the bidding of the dead. The player briefly joins Team Bam but it doesn't work out, and they go back to Team Hawk. Later in the game, the teams meet Nigel Beaverhausen, a strange documentarist, who wants to film the tour for the public. Both teams refuse, and instead play a joke on him. After meeting with him the second time they agree, but only because he promises to pay for the whole trip. The game ends at Skatopia, a skaters heaven. Here, the player character ruins Bam's planned firework destruction of the place when he gets out of control, thus ending the Destruction Tour.

Gameplay

The player can skate around in a 3D environment modeled after various cities and attempts to complete various goals. Most goals involve skating on or over various objects or performing combos. In this game the player can play as multiple characters in the story mode as they find them, some of them using vehicles besides skateboards (like a battery powered wheelchair).

New features have been added to the series such as tricks like flips and rolls. Another new feature is a graffiti spray mechanic, that allows the player to create a tag and spray it wherever they desire. When the player character falls off their board they can perform a 'freak out' where the character gets angry and get points which then can be used for a combo. They can also climb up ledges and shimmy, creating more opportunities for skating.

Soundtrack

• 25 ta Life - Over the Years
• 3 Inches of Blood - Deadly Sinners
• Aesop Rock - No Jumer Cables (DJ Pawl Remix)
• Atmosphere - Trying to Find a Balance
• Audio Two - Top Billin'
• Brand Nubian - Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down
• Camaros - Cheesecake
• The Casualties - Unknown Soldier
• Cut Chemist - Drums of Fire
• The D.O.C. - Whirlwind Pyramid
• Das Oath - Awesome Rape
• Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer
• Dead End Road - Sin City
• The Distillers - Beat Your Heart Out
• Disturbed - Liberate
• Diverse - Certified
• The Doors - Break on Through
• The Explosion - Here I Am
• Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
• Fear - I Love Livin' in the City
• Frank Sinatra - That's Life
• The Germs - Lexicon Devil
• Grand Puba - I Like It
• Handsome Boy Modeling School - Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)
• This Hiss - Back on the Radio
• Jimmy Eat World - Pain
• Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire
• Joy Division - Warsaw
• Lamb of God - Black Label
• Less Than Jake - That's Why They Call it a Union
• Libretto - Volume
• The Living End - End of the World
• Living Legends feat. Slug - Night Prowler
• Melbeatz feat. Kool Savas - Grind On
• Melvins - Sweet Willy Rollbar
• Metallica - Whiplash
• Mike V. & The Rats - Never Give Up
• Ministry - No
• Nebula - So It Goes
• Operatic - Interested in Madness
• Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Soul Brothers #1
• Ramones - Rock 'n' Roll High School
• Rancid - Fall Back Down
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Power of Equality
• Steel Pulse - Born fe Rebel
• The Stooges - 1970
• The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight
• The Suicide Machines - High Anxiety
• Ultramagnetic MC's - Ego Trippin'
• Violent Femmes - Add It Up

Unlockables

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 features many unlockables. Most characters are unlocked by being discovered in story mode, but some are unlocked upon completion of the game, on different difficulty settings. There are also levels that can be unlocked upon completing Story Mode.

Secret Characters:

• Benjamin Franklin
• Bull Fighter
• Graffiti Tagger
• Jesse James
• Jester
• Nigel Beaverhausen
• Paulie "Wheels Of Fury" Ryan
• Ryan Sheckler
• Phil Margera
• Shrimp Vendor
• Alien
• Alien Doctor
• Shrek
• Geeky Kid
• Space Monkey

Pro Skaters:

• Tony Hawk
• Bob Burnquist
• Eric Koston
• Bam Margera
• Rodney Mullen
• Chad Muska
• Mike Vallely

Levels

• Training (An expanded version of a level called "Warehouse" in THPS 1)
• Boston
• Barcelona
• Berlin
• Australia
• New Orleans
• Skatopia
• Pro Skater
• The Triangle
• Santa Cruz (THUG 2 Remix only - Would later appear as a Classic Mode level in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)
• Atlanta (THUG 2 Remix only - Would later appear as a Classic Mode level in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (For PS2 Special Edition Only)
• Kyoto (THUG 2 Remix only - Would later appear as a Classic Mode level in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland)
• Las Vegas Casino (THUG 2 Remix only - Would later appear as a run down Casino in Tony Haw's American Wasteland)

Classic Mode Levels:

• School (of THPS1)
• Downhill Jam (of THPS1)
• Philadelphia (of THPS2)
• Canada (of THPS3)
• Airport (of THPS3)
• Los Angeles (of THPS3)
• Suburbia (of THPS3)