Tony Hawk's Underground. Interesting English... Does that mean Tony is underground with the Wombles, or that he owns some kind of subterranean transport network? Either way, what we have here is actually Tony Hawk 5, except with the career mode reworked slightly... but not too much. So, that's the usual dynamite THPS gameplay, soundtrack, and wacky missions (OK, THPS fans, you can go and buy the game now). For the rest of the world, you may ask how THUG is different. Well, in THUG, there's a story...

You create your own skater, and then start off as a no name hobby skater, who happens to go and see Chad Muska (a real skater pro, and like all the other skaters in the game, voiced by himself) do a skate demo in your hometown. You then go and impress Chad, who puts you onto getting sponsored by your local skateshop, who gets you into a competition.... and so on. The game is divided up into chapters, with each skating area spanning several. Each of these chapters has a bunch of tasks distributed around the level (given to you by various people), and after completing a set number of tasks; you can progress in the game to the next section. It's fairly neat, and a nice way to rework the progression in game, but the plot doesn't pull any surprises, and so it really is little more than a superficial rework of the old system, whereas it could have been a whole lot more interesting. However, there is some fun to be had on the way, as you go about impressing pros and competing in competitions, and see your rivalry grow with your best friend from home as you both climb the ranks (ah, what fame does to people...).

Aside from the plot, precious little changes from THPS4. The skating engine is still dynamite, even in its fifth revision, and you still get the create-a-skater and park editor modes. The game does however, seem a little easier than its predecessors, and anyone that's completed THPS3 or 4 will want to set the difficulty to Hard from the start, or they will breeze through the game in under 10 hours.

   

Graphically, the Xbox version reviewed was ok - no pop-up, fogging or slowdown, and all available in widescreen. But the graphics are starting to show their age a little - rails look a little too square, grass looks flat. Neversoft has managed to draw away from that by making as much as possible of the environment trickable (is that a word? Oh well...) as possible, and to have a bit more generally going on around, and in that respect, they've done well. The environments are as big as usual, although a little more realistic in their conception, with each having some focused skating spots, joined by less focused street areas.

An interesting addition to the move set is being able to hop off your board, and run around, jump, climb, in a kind of Tomb Raider on skateboards kind of way. You can even hop off your board mid combo, during which you're given a short time to get back on to continue your combo, which really pushes the limits of what can be done combo-wise.

The music track listing is huge, and won't get repetitive whilst you're beating this game a couple of times.

   

I did mention earlier that the game has the create-a-skater and create-a-park modes. It also has a create-a-trick mode, whereby you can segue other tricks together, and muck about with them a little, until you have some kind of horrible lovechild of skate tricks. The trouble is that on the Xbox, who else is going to see any of your creative genius? Afterall, memory cards aren't exactly in wide use. You would think that Neversoft would let you swap this stuff via the Internet somehow. Well, you'd think so, but you can't on the Xbox, although you can on the PS2 version. The PS2 version also allows you to get your face mapped onto your character, and of course, play online games, all equally missing from the Xbox version. Rubbish. There's a multiplayer mode, but it all feels like a bit of the kick in the balls for Xbox Live.

It's obvious that there has been an attempt to freshen up the gameplay, and the series was due an overhaul. Some of it has worked, some hasn't - it certainly feels a little more pleasing to play, as many of the missions will involve you being filmed doing certain tricks down large flights of stairs, or over obstacles. Although you can't watch any highlights videos of what's been filmed (Maybe in THPS6: Tony Hawk's Aboveground?), these missions help the game feel more realistic, as it does feel like you're making a real skate video, rather than just pulling tricks for the hell of it. On the other hand, there are a few very poorly realised driving missions in there too, which really weren't in any way necessary.

Whilst overall THUG is a step in the right direction, in order to progress, the series needs a bit more of a kick in the pants than this. THUG isn't going to convince any THPS doubters, and it's probably best to steer clear if you've had your fill of Hawk already. But it's a good deal of fun for both Hawk lovers and newbies.