The Tony Hawk's series continues with one more incredible game.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Decent story, good multiplayer, interesting levels, many Create-A-Something modes, gameplay.

Cons: No X-Box Live.

The Bottom Line: 
The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series adds one more incredible game to their collection, go to the store and get this game now.

Author's Review
I have been a loyal player of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Series ever since the original THPS came out, from playing in Warehouse listening to Superman by Goldfinger, to playing in School 2, as an unlocked level in THUG (Tony Hawk's Underground). I own THPS 1, 2, 3, 4, and THUG... And I am nowhere close to being able to ollie on a real skateboard. THUG is my second favorite Tony Hawk's game, right after THPS 2. If you are new to the series, this series' greatness relies on its addictive gameplay and its variety of tricks that can be linked into bigger and bigger combos as the series grows. From basically wallrides and grinds back in THPS, to complex combos involving vert tricks, reverts, manuals, flatland tricks, and even getting off your board for a few seconds in THUG. All this accompanied killer soundtracks and fun enviroments to skate in.

In the later versions of the series (4 and UG) the games had a story, instead of the usual list of goals. I didn't think very highly of the idea of a story in a skating game, but it was actually a great idea. It actually made the game even more addictive (Woah). The story in THUG is about making your created character a pro skater. This would be very easy if only your so-called friend Eric Sparrow wasn't such an cockroach, such a backstabbing b!7ch. He steals your McTwist-over-helicopter video and becomes famous before you do. You travel the world looking to fulfill your dream, you visit all sort of places; Hawaii, Moscow, Vancouver, New Jersey and many more. However, I was disappointed by the story. The Ad said that the story changed depending on what you did along the way... Not true, the story will be the same no matter what you do, or what team you choose. Anyway, even if you can't make your own story, the story that comes with the game is pretty awesome.

The gameplay and controls are, as usual, flawless. Contuining the wonders of removing the 2:00 timer on the first 3 titles, you can not only skate but also walk around, drive around, and even fly around (Slam City Jam). The skating is even better in this one; you can pull the craziest combos, since you can get of your board and start a new one, all in the same combo. What I don't understand is why THUG is easier than THPS4, I mean this game took me two days to beat on normal difficulty, and about a week on sick. I don't recall sitting HOURS in front of the TV, trying to 'Manual the Switchbacks' in Alcatraz (AHHHH!!!). Neversoft should only expect their players to get better, and anyway why make your game easier than the preceeding one. The controls are as good as always, very easy to get used to and nothing needs a Mortal-Kombat style sequence of button-pressing to pull off a trick. The only thing that I can't understand is why they changed the instant 180 degree turn (used to be L + R) that was available in THPS 4, really frustrated me at times when I tried turning back and hit a wall instead. Eventually I found out that the new way was Down, Down, R. It has more tricks than ever before, both normal and special. Classics like The 900 and McTwist are still there, along with new tricks such as the Meditate Grind and Lick It Up grab. Also certain special tricks of the past are now normal tricks, specially grinds. Grinds like Double Bluntslide and Darkslide can be performed by tapping Y twice as you start grinding (eg. Left + Y,Y = Hurricane).

The selection of skaters is bigger than it has ever been, adding Mike Vallely, Arto Saari, and Paul Rodriguez to the crew. The secret characters are decent; you have Gene Simmons from KISS, Iron Man, and THUD, some sort of mummified monster, all which come with cool customized special tricks, such as The Scanner manual from Iron Man, which turns everything green. Of course you have the rest of the crew, including Tony Hawk, Kareem Campbell, Bob Burnquist, and Bam Margera.

The soundtrack in THUG is what you will find all across the THPS series, pure genius. I've read a lot of people who dislike it, but it is filled with awesome, non-commercial hip hop tracks, as well as rock classics such as Kiss's I Wanna Rock And Roll All Night. I'm really not a fan of punk or modern rock, so I don't have much to say about those, except for a few good tunes that are still on my playlist, such as Viva La Revolution and California Babylon. On the other hand, you will find an excellent hip hop collection, including classics such as Nas's The World Is Yours and incredible rhymes and beats courtesy of Deltron 3030, Busdriver, Jurassic 5, J-Live, and Aceyalone. If you don’t like any of this music, you can listen to your own music, since THUG is compatible with custom soundtracks.

The game has many creating features, Create-A-Skater, Create-A-Park, Create-A-Deck, and Create-A-Trick. You can make any skater you can possibly think of in Create-A-Skater, he can be as tall as you want, as fat as you want, and can be wearing pretty much anything there is to wear. Creare-A-Park was really impressive, much improvement since THPS4. You can build on a huge space, and there are tons of things to choose from. The new rail tool lets you build rails in any direction you feel like. However, you most probably will not be able to fill your park up, since there is a limited amount of things you can put in; really frustrating. Also, I hate the ground texture on any created park, it looks like dirt. Another thing I dislike of this feature is the lack of light. If you look at the map on overview, it looks as if there were four huge lamps in the middle of the map, the rest is all dark. Create-A-Deck is OK, I guess, even though there isn't much selection for you board design. Create-A-Trick is new, and it is a great addition. You can come up with crazy tricks, too crazy in some cases (3000 degree spins, looks like a tornado), but other than that it is great. However no matter how insane your trick is, it probably won't give you the 'right' amount of points (OMG MY TRICK IS SO AWESOME HOW COME I ONLY GET 6000 POINTS?!?). A 1.5 second trick gives you 6,000 points, when the Indy 900, another 1.5 second trick, gives you 11,000. Frustrating, if you took an hour to make your dream trick.

Finally, my favorite part of the game, multiplayer. In comparison to the previous titles in the series, the multiplayer is very good. However, I would have really liked THUG to be compatible with X-Box Live. Multiplayer features all the game modes we know and love, as well as a few new modes. For the people who have never played THPS, you can challenge a friend in different games such as Trick Attack (high scores), Horse (matching your opponent’s score), King of the Hill (keeping the crown without the enemy taking it from you), Grafitti (doing tricks off as many object as you can), and Tag (simply crashing into your opponent). The games comes with a few new game modes such as Combo Mambo (whoever gets the highest score off one combo), and Firefight (doing a certain trick fires a ball of fire). I really enjoy playing King of the Hill (specially with the whole getting off your board thing) but it would be much more fun if you could play the ‘System Link’ modes on Live, which include games like Capture The Flag.

The graphics for THUG are as good as the Tony Hawk's series has always been. Smooth and detailed texures, big realistic enviroments, and nice animations are featured in THUG. The animations are more realistic than ever, for example, when you bail during a manual, your skateboard actually goes flying in front of you, and doesn't just disappear like it had done until now.

I would really recommend this game to anybody, even though it doesn’t have X-Box Live, it will keep you addicted for months. For THPS veterans this is a must, and even if you’ve never played any of the Tony Hawk games, you should definitely pick it up.

4 ½ stars, because the lack of online play, rounded up to 5.