Tony Hawk's Underground is a 2003 skateboarding video game and the fifth entry in the Tony Hawk's series, following Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. In 2004, it was published for Windows in Australia and New Zealand as a budget release.

Underground is built upon the skateboarding formula of previous Tony Hawk's games: the player explores levels and completes goals while performing tricks. It features a new focus on customization; the player, instead of selecting a professional skater, creates a custom character. Underground adds the ability for players to dismount their boards and explore on foot. The plot follows the player character and their friend Eric Sparrow as the two become professionals and grow apart.

Underground was developed with a theme of individuality which was manifested in the extensive character customization options, the presence of a narrative, and the product's characterization as an adventure game. Real world professional skateboarders contributed their experiences to the plot. Underground was a major critical and commercial success, with reviewers praising its wide appeal, soundtrack, customization, multiplayer, and storyline. The graphics and the controls for driving vehicles and walking were less well received. Undergrounds PlayStation 2 version had sold 2.11 million copies in the United States by December 2007. A sequel, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, followed in 2004.

Gameplay

Like its predecessors in the Tony Hawk's series, Underground is centered on skateboarding in a series of levels. Comboing raises the player's score and fills up the Special Meter; when it is full, the player is granted access to more elaborate tricks worth more points, such as the McTwist and 540 Flip. found in a level. On account of the levels' large sizes and the integration of goals into the story, Underground has been described as an adventure game. Characters can level up their stats—which include jump height and speed—by completing optional goals in a level;

Plot

The protagonist and their friend, Eric Sparrow, live in suburban New Jersey and dream of becoming famous skateboarders. The protagonist manages to impress professional skater Chad Muska, visiting town for a demo, who gives them a new skateboard and informs them that a good way to start a skating career is to gain a sponsorship from a local skate shop. The protagonist seeks out Stacy Peralta, who agrees to sponsor them on the condition that the player does something to set themselves apart from the other local skaters, so the protagonist travels to Manhattan, New York with Eric, who is on the run from drug dealers after setting their car on fire as revenge for stealing from the skate shop.

There, the pair shoot a skating video that impresses Stacy, who loans them a van and suggests they enter the Tampa AM, an amateur division skate contest held annually at the Skatepark of Tampa, in Tampa, Florida. Upon arrival, Eric is arrested for insulting a police officer, and the protagonist does favors for the local police department to secure his bail. However, when they arrive for the contest, it is revealed that Eric had only completed his own application form and not the protagonist's, forcing a dejected protagonist to try and impress competitors in the pro contest in order to gain admission. After impressing Tony Hawk, the protagonist wins the Best Trick event at Tampa AM and is offered sponsorship deals by Birdhouse, Element, Flip, Girl, and Zero to join their skate teams, much to Eric's dismay. After selecting a team, the protagonist then heads to San Diego, California to meet Todd, the manager of the team, and completes several photo shoots for a magazine. Following a wild celebration party, it is revealed that Eric has been picked up by the same sponsor.

The team then flies out to Hawaii to film a video, with the protagonist aiming for local spots that skaters have not filmed at before. Finding a tall hotel, the protagonist climbs to the roof and recruits Eric to film a trick video atop it. The police arrive to arrest them for trespassing, but the protagonist uses the opportunity to perform a McTwist over the helicopter and onto the awning of the adjacent Royal Hawaiian Hotel, allowing them and an awestruck Eric to evade the police. The team then travels to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After doing errands for locals and finishing their part of the team video, the protagonist attends the video premiere at the Slam City Jam. Eric steals the idea and edits the protagonist's part out of the video, allowing only Eric to become a professional. After angrily confronting Eric, the protagonist enters Eric's pro contest and wins, becoming a pro as well.

After designing their own pro skateboard and signing a shoe deal, the protagonist and Eric embark on a team trip to Moscow, Russia, where they reconcile. Eric gets drunk and joyrides in a Russian military tank. The protagonist hops in and attempts to stop the tank but, being unfamiliar with the controls, fails to stop it from crashing into a government building. Eric jumps out and runs away, leaving the protagonist, trapped inside, to be arrested by the Russian military. Eric then lies and claims the protagonist stole the tank, stating that he in fact tried to stop them. Unwilling to pay the $700,000 worth of damages, Todd kicks the protagonist off the team, much to Eric's delight. The American Embassy bails out the protagonist, leaving them to do favors for locals in order to return home to New Jersey.

Eric, who now owns his own skate company, reveals that he had been planning to betray the protagonist after having long abandoned the idea of "soul skating" (skating for enjoyment rather than riches); after unsuccessfully trying to exempt them from the Tampa AM, Eric stole the helicopter footage in jealousy before finally getting the protagonist kicked off the skate team by lying back in Moscow. Determined to fight back, the protagonist teams up with Peralta and several professionals to create a soul skating video, creating a new trick in the process. Due to the success of the video, Eric challenges the protagonist to one last skate-off, with the unedited helicopter tape at stake. The protagonist wins the skate-off and walks away with the tape while Eric screams at them.

Alternate ending

If the story has been completed more than once on two different difficulties, an alternate ending occurs, where the protagonist knocks Eric unconscious, taking the tape back instead of holding the skate-off.

Development

Concept

The GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions of Underground were developed by Neversoft, but it was reworked.

Underground was created with a theme of individuality: it stars an amateur skater in a true story mode, whereas each previous Tony Hawk's game had starred professional skaters and had lacked a plot. Previous games in the series had included character-creation features as well, but Neversoft expanded customization in Underground by implementing face-scanning for the PlayStation 2 version: Neversoft wanted the player to become familiar with the basic game mechanics quickly and to notice Undergrounds differences from previous Tony Hawk's games immediately. To accomplish this, they introduced the ability to travel on foot, and the ability to climb along ledges in the first few missions. While Neversoft wanted to keep Underground realistic and relatable for the most part, they added driving side-missions as an enjoyable diversion and to push the boundaries of freedom in skateboarding games, ranging from "Too Easy" to "Sick". Neversoft wanted players to develop skills for higher difficulty settings on Too Easy while still progressing through the story. The company had included extremely difficult missions in each previous Tony Hawk's game; the methods used to create these missions were the inspiration for Undergrounds Sick mode.

While the cutscenes are animated with 3D graphics, the team recorded live-action videos to introduce the real-world skateboarding teams, so that players could better understand each team before selecting one to join. Neversoft interviewed professional skaters about their experiences of becoming known in the skateboarding world, then compiled elements of these stories into the script. Activision promoted Underground with the "Tony Hawk's Face Off Mobile Tour", a series of events across 29 cities in October. Attendees could play the game early and compete in it for tickets to Boom Boom Huck Jam 2003, which Tony Hawk himself attended. Activision, which sponsored the October Gravity Games extreme sports competition, promoted the game at the event and used its rendering engine to model tricks performed by the real-world skaters. The console and Game Boy Advance versions were released on October 28 in the United States, and May 2004 in Japan. The mobile phone version was released worldwide in January 2004. Underground had a marketing budget of $8.6 million.

Reception

Critical response

Tony Hawk's Underground received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic.

The alternate gameplay modes were received well. Knutson lauded the high degree of customization; he summarized that "everything is expounded a hundred fold: from create-a-skater to create-a-park mode, it is simply amazing". He singled out the level editor as one of the deepest he had ever seen. The 2004 MTV Video Music Awards introduced a new category, Best Video Game Soundtrack, which Underground won. During the AIAS' 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Underground received nominations for Console Action Sports Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Licensed Soundtrack.

In Europe the week after the release, the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube versions were respectively the fifth, sixth, and eighth-best selling games for those consoles. It would remain uninterrupted in the top twenty of every week until January 24, 2004, for the Xbox and GameCube and February 21 for the PlayStation 2, inclusive. As of December 2007, the PlayStation 2 version had sold 2.11 million copies in the United States. The GameCube version made Nintendo's Player's Choice list by selling 250,000 copies in the United States. Its PlayStation 2 version also received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Sequel

Neversoft and Activision released a sequel, Underground 2, on October 4, 2004, for Windows, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation Portable consoles. The plot continues that of Underground and focuses on the player character and their team sabotaging an opposing team. The gameplay, structure, and level design are very similar to those of Underground, but Underground 2 features new tricks and gameplay mechanics, like the Natas spin, the ability to plant customized stickers in levels with the "sticker slap", a slow-motion "Focus" mode, and the ability to earn points by having a tantrum after falling. The plot is set in new locations, including Boston, New Orleans, Berlin, Barcelona, and Skatopia.

Notes

References

Further reading

  • (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox)
  • (Game Boy Advance)