Video games - Tony Hawk's Underground

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	Video games - Tony Hawk's Underground

Tony Hawk's Underground, also called THUG and released in 2003, is a skateboarding video game available for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, GBA and Xbox platforms. It is the fifth console game in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
series. It features the ability to create a custom character, and is playable online on the PS2 version. Unlike its predecessors, THUG focuses heavily on its story mode, and to this extent includes a large number of in-game cutscenes. THUG was also the first game in the series to introduce the ability to travel around levels on foot.

Game mechanics

A constantly changing mechanic in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series is the gaining of skill. In other games, this was accomplished by either earning money which went toward unlocking levels, buying skateboard gear, and improving skills; or by finding floating tokens in each level which were worth one skill point each. In THUG, specific (usually skill-related) achievements increase the player's skill in each of 10 categories. For example, doing at least a certain number of tricks while in the air after launching off a quarter- or half-pipe can increase the player's Air rating, giving them more airtime. Holding a rail grind (or manual slide) for a length of time increases the player's balance on those moves. The set of moves is harder in higher difficulty settings; a rail grind of twenty seconds is one of the final accomplishments in Normal difficulty, but one of the first in Sick difficulty.

For the first time in the series, the player can walk around, rather than skateboard. This is necessary to reach some locations and challenges. This is linked to the Caveman move; the player is now able to leave his skateboard in the middle of a combo of moves, and continue his combo elsewhere, as long as he or she continues within a time limit. This time limit is another skill that can be improved. Added to the moves in THUG is the wall push (skating toward, and pushing off, a wall).

Game plot

In THUG, the player's skater (which must be created; professional skaters (including the seminal Tony Hawk, also the game series' eponym) and unlockable skaters are available, but only in multiplayer modes) is a largely nameless skater from a New Jersey town, who aspires to make a name for himself (or if you chose to make your avatar female, herself) in the world of professional skateboarding. To this end, he receives some help from childhood friend Eric Sparrow and skateshop owner Stacy Peralta, as well as a skateboard from skateboard pro Chad Muska, whom the character impresses during his time in New Jersey. As the game progresses, the character gains recognition, first as an amateur team skater, then as a professional. However, Sparrow's selfishness gets the better of him time and again, and he always seems to steal the spotlight...

The initial culmination of the player's efforts results in one of the most memorable cutscenes in the game; the player must jump off of one building, perform a grab trick (specifically, a McTwist) over the spinning blades of a helicopter, and land in (or near) a half-pipe a number of stories down on another building. Note: Even if the player does not land the trick correctly in game, the cutscene will show the player landing perfectly on the hotel roof.

The game takes place in a number of levels based on various real cities, most in North America. These levels include:

New Jersey
Manhattan
Tampa
San Diego
Hawaii (the location of the helicopter cutscene)
Vancouver
Slam City Jam skateboarding tournament
Moscow

The game also has four unlockable levels:

Hotter Than Hell, a KISS concert in the Australian outback
School, Venice and Hangar, levels ported from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

In THUG after getting out of Moscow you must make your own team and complete a series of difficult stunts. For your last challenge you face Eric where you must hit all of his lines within a set time limit. Because it is considered to a be a frustrating and tiresome goal no matter what the difficulty, players only need to complete the goal once - Any subsequent plays through the game, and when Eric challenges you, you just punch him in the face, knocking him out and catching the tape in one motion.

Pro Skaters

Tony Hawk
Bob Burnquist
Steve Caballero
Kareem Campbell
Rune Glifberg
Eric Koston
Bucky Lasek
Bam Margera
Rodney Mullen
Chad Muska
Andrew Reynolds
Paul Rodriguez
Geoff Rowley
Arto Saari
Elissa Steamer
Jamie Thomas
Mike Vallely

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Tony Hawk's Underground ]

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