Tony Hawk's Underground Review

Underground is the entry that remembered skateboarding is a subculture and not just a scoring system. You are not Tony Hawk here, you are a custom nobody from New Jersey working up through local spots toward a pro deal, and the story mode gives every goal a reason beyond a number. Being able to step off the board is the structural key: levels can now include ledges you climb and vehicles you drive, so the world stops ending at the edge of a skateable surface.

Create a park, create a trick and a graphics editor that let players import their own logos made this the most personal game in the series by a distance, and the betrayal arc with Eric Sparrow lands better than a licensed sports game had any right to. The driving sections are poor and the cutscene writing swings between funny and juvenile without much warning. The trick engine is also visibly unchanged from the third game. Still the boldest thing the franchise ever tried, and the reason the sequel went off a cliff chasing spectacle.