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Tony Hawk's Underground Preview

Mark Simons

05/08/2003

Where now for this insanely successful series? Find out in our detailed preview...

The 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' series came from nowhere to become one of the biggest franchises of recent history. Not undeservedly either, all of the games have been wonderful, perhaps with the exception of the third game, which lost a little of the focus that made the first two games so tight, in every aspect of their design. Neversoft pretty much maxed out the standard career mode as seen in so many games of recent years, online modes, great, all well and good, but what new was there left for the series? Improvements and refinements are good, but sometimes you need to stride headfirst into new territory, which is exactly what seems to be happening with 'Tony Hawk Underground'.

Let's start with the career mode, as this seems to have some the biggest changes. For starters you will be able to play as yourself, by downloading, and we hope Eye Toy support is added, you can use your own face. With a bit of editing you then map this to a three-dimensional model in the game, and et voila! You're in the game!

This allows you to really get into the role of taking a young rookie skater from his backyard to the big-time. There will be a proper story, not just cash and unlocking things, and the story will be more involving than simple cut-scenes, as you can, dum dum duuu, get off your skateboard. By that we don't mean you can fall off, rather you can jump off, tuck your board under your arm and run around. Getting off the board will allow you to do some new combos, which will be nice, it will also allow you to explore the even bigger levels for hidden goodies. It looks like you will be not just limited to walking, all kinds of platform jumping, climbing and shimmying will be available.

Storylines in sports games may seem to be a new thing, but we've seen it before in 'International Superstar Soccer 2000' on the N64, an odd little role playing game following a would-be football star in his quest for world-wide fame. We think we'll be seeing more of this in the future, we here at TVG have some interesting ideas for long, narrative driven sports titles, but we won't bore you with them here.

Levels in 'THUG' are huge, and we get the feeling that you'll stay on a level until you progress to the next chapter in the story. How cool will it be to have to get up in the morning, go practice your skating, meet a rival for a competition, win, then go to the shop, spend your winnings, then in the evening skate with your buddies, searching out new things and showing off your purchases. With the huge environments and day / night cycle, this is certainly possible. 'Shenmue' on a skateboard we say...

Away from the story mode Neversoft are keen to make this Tony Hawk's the most one of customisable games around. You will be able to create levels that are on a par with any of the ones that ship with the game, buildings can be placed, runs created, goals set, all in a huge space that you can do whatever you like with. It also seems that there will be downloadable content, so hopefully you'll be able to share your wonderful level designs with the world.

In addition to creating levels you will be able to create your own tricks. Your own tricks? How does that work you cry! Well, it seems relatively simple, you choose animations and can manipulate them and layer them together to create your own custom animations. Choose where the feet go, how the board is kicked, what your arms do, and then just select when the various bits of the animation kick in on a time line. A bit like mixing music in a sequencer, but different.

There will be a number of online modes as well, but details are scarce at the moment, although downloadable content has been mentioned ? download your friends and their levels? Online competitions where you actually see your opponent as a character? Online storylines? We'll have to wait and see.