Tony Hawks Underground 2 for PSP

I humbly submit that the popularity of the television show Jackass has been the worst thing for the Tony Hawk game franchise. From the beginning, the game was always supposed to capture the extremes of skateboarding culture, but only recently has the game begun to resemble an interactive Bam Margera funhouse. Thankfully, the core gameplay has always kept fans(like me) coming back for more.

The beauty of the Hawk franchise is in its simplicity. The game simulates the experience of skateboarding in a realistic-feeling, yet over-the-top way. You press buttons on the controller in various combinations to pull off the skate tricks. There are various linking tricks that let you put lines together in a way that no skater ever could in real life. This formula, plus perfectly smooth and responsive controls, make for a winner.

Having said that, I should point out the fact that the games structure has changed over the incarnations. At first, the game let you skate the levels for two minutes and you had to achieve a high score, collect a certain item etc. Later the game let you roam freely around the stages, attempting goals whenever you felt like it, a la Grand Theft Auto. These new goals frequently revolved around childish pranks, which was a bit of a turnoff to some hardcore fans, who wanted more pure skateboarding goals. They still played it like crazy because of the awesome skating mechanics, however.

This new edition tries to compromise. You get the main world story mode, which has your custom created skater running missions for Tony Hawk and Bam Margera on the "World Destruction Tour". Most of the goals have you defacing property, annoying the locals, and the like, which is all well and good, except it has little to do with actual skateboarding. It is still a very fun mode with some decent cutscenes, but I found myself truly addicted to the new "classic" mode.

Classic mode lets you play the levels with a time limit and simple yet addicting new goals. I was quite pleased to see some old-school Tony Hawk levels, including the Canada and Los Angeles levels from my favorite incarnation, Tony Hawk 3. As a hardcore Hawk addict I found myself really feeling the classic mode and the excitement of trying to complete the goals before time ran out. Props for trying to please old fans.

I was also pleased to see that the levels have been improved from before. There are fewer dead ends and lots of rooftops and ramp-ups to play with. You are also given the option to create your own level.

The new tricks are dissapointing, though. The Natas spin which lets you spin around in a circle on fire hydrants and such, is cool, but tagging is lame. If I want to spray paint on walls I'll play Jet Set Radio Future. I think it's clear that the development team has run out of ideas in this department.

Also, I can't help but notice that the two modes, fun as they are, are quite short. The developer, Neversoft, must of figured that they could get away with it, since the title is billed as "two games in one."

Graphics: The game has changed from the grittier more realistic texture of previous titles, to a more bright, cartoony look. Otherwise the game looks like it always did. The modeling was never too impressive, but the steady framerate and large level design help to compensate.

Sound: Besides the generic sound effects, the skateboarders play themselves with OK results. The soundtrack is decent, but has too much punk for my taste. Fortunately, the XBOX has custom soundtracks , so I can skate to Nas and Wu-tang. They did include some Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash tunes, which inspired me to add Al Jolson to my custom playlist.

Overall, THUG 2 is a very enjoyable and satisfying game that will please old and new fans. I still think, like I did last year, that the Neversoft development team should take a break from the series for a while. The games, while better from a technical standpoint, get less fresh and unique with every new incarnation. Everyone will get their money's worth, however, as there are plenty of hidden skaters to unlock in the two, satisfyingly long modes. Also, it's always fun to just skate around and try to beat your high score and such.