GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Games

Playstation Reviews
PS3 | PS2 | PS One | PSP

Xbox Reviews
Xbox 360 | Xbox

Nintendo Reviews
Wii | DS | GBA | Cube | N64


PC | N-Gage | Dreamcast

How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Games In Our Forums

 

Upcoming & Recent Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums
Tony Hawk's Underground xbx Game Reviews
Tony Hawk's Underground
Critic Score
Metascore: 85 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.5 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 26 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game

Get ready for a totally new breed of the Tony Hawk experience. Play as yourself, not a pro skater, and make your way through a plot-twisting, true-to-life story that takes you from unknown local skate punk to fame and fortune as a superstar skater. For the first time ever, you'll be able to get off your board and explore 9 expansive levels on foot or by vehicle. Enjoy unprecedented customization by designing and naming your own original tricks through the all-new Create-a-Trick. Or create bigger parks and include your own goals in the expanded Skate Park Editor. After you're done, share your tricks and parks online with your friends. You can even download your own face into the game! And, with all-new online play - new games, stats, and online rankings - you'll have infinite expansion through downloadable content. You're the star...you own the Underground! [Activision]

PUBLISHER: Activision
DEVELOPER: Neversoft Entertainment
GENRE(S): Extreme Sports
PLAYERS: 2
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE: October 27, 2003

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Maxim Online
For immersing entertainment, this game is totally up our halfpipe.
Read Full Review
100
Entertainment Weekly
Offers subplots and jokes galore, and a nuevo-punk soundtrack with some hip-hop flair. [21 Nov 2003, p.L2T 46]
100
GamePro
The story ramps up the difficulty gradually, so you build skills as you go, but there are now four difficulty levels, making THUG totally accessible to newbies.
Read Full Review
95
Next Level Gaming
This game rocks! It is like "Grand Theft Auto 3" on a skateboard! I am so glad the developers chose to go in a new direction with the Tony Hawk franchise! This game is by far the best of all 5 titles to date!
Read Full Review
94
Game Chronicles
I'll trade in better sound and graphics and smoother gameplay any day over a few features.
Read Full Review
94
XGP Gaming
Just when you thought that there couldn't be any more tricks added to a Tony Hawk game, they add more.
Read Full Review
93
Game Over Online
With an enormous amount of customizable options, absorbing story mode and large mod community, T.H.U.G. provides just about anything a gamer could want in a skateboarding title without grabbing a board and hitting the streets. Combine that with the ability to "place" yourself into the game with the face mapping feature, and you have a product that could easily be considered one of the best games of the year.
Read Full Review
93
Electronic Gaming Monthly
While THUG offers some innovation, it remains fundamentally the same game...Fundamantally, Hawk hasn't evolved enough. [Jan 2004, p.112]
92
IGN
The gameplay is still as stellar as ever: Neversoft's brilliant collage of on-the-fly experimentation and lighting-fast trick-popping is still as addictive as any drug and as intoxicating as any exotic woman.
Read Full Review
91
Armchair Empire
While it's inexcusable that there's still no Xbox Live support, and the GTA story mode isn't the revolutionary addition it could have been, THUG's overall great features and customary amazing skating action assure that this is again not only a great skateboarding game, but a great game period.
Read Full Review
90
Team Xbox
The new story mode takes the genre in another direction that is engaging but still keeps the tried-and-true Tony Hawk goodness intact. If you love the series then you are going to cream over Tony Hawk’s Underground.
Read Full Review
90
GameSpy
It's painful to see that the ultra-cool face-mapping and online eight-player multiplayer game is absent from the final Xbox package. However, THUG for the Xbox remains one of the best games you'll play this year.
Read Full Review
90
Official Xbox Magazine
We didn't get the "face in the game" feature that the PS2 has, which admittedly sucks, but this is still the best out there and it keeps getting better. [Jan 2004, p.66]
90
TotalGames.net
Coupled with the unrivalled level design, the marriage of elements is a strong one... one that easily claims the extreme top spot and raises the bar that one notch higher.
Read Full Review
90
Cincinnati Enquirer
While at its heart the game is still an arcade-based skateboarding simulation that challenges players to perform tricks for points, the emphasis is less on Tony Hawk and other pro skaters and more on, well, nobodies like us.
Read Full Review
90
Yahoo! Games
At its core, Tony Hawk's Underground is still the best skateboarding game out there and it's much more than "Tony Hawk 4" ever was. That being said, while some of the new features are great, others just aren't up to the level of quality that we've come to expect from Neversoft.
Read Full Review
88
GamingTrend
The score is brought down a bit because of the timed nature of many missions. The car-based missions are especially tough because of the loose controls and the small amount of time you have to complete your mission.
Read Full Review
88
Game Informer
The new story-driven model is amusing, but there's far too much chaff amongst the wheat, in the form of gimmicky, pointless missions; dreadful driving; and repetitive "fetch me five of these" goals. [Dec 2003, p.164]
Read Full Review
87
GameSpot
While the classic Tony Hawk gameplay is present, and still fantastic after all this time, the new story mode doesn't make as dramatic of a change as it probably could have.
Read Full Review
85
GameZone
Tony Hawk novices will be happily overwhelmed, while Tony Hawk masters will enjoy taking the game even further.
Read Full Review
85
Deeko
If Neversoft is doing what I hope they're doing, and that is using THUG as a bridge towards a lot of fully realized ideas then Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 6 is going to be damn awesome.
Read Full Review
83
Game Revolution
It’s a massive, exceptional product that expands every aspect of its predecessors without sacrificing much, though it’s a better game on the PS2 than the Xbox or Gamecube thanks to its great online functionality.
Read Full Review
83
Play Magazine
The game is so fun and addicting, and the environments so brimming with goodness, you'll care not. Too bad the art is lacking. [Jan 2004, p.64]
83
Gaming Age
An addictive sequel which adds so much to the mix that you can't help but spend hours exploring it all.
Read Full Review
82
GamingWorld X
The ability to roam the level on foot or in a vehicle were great ideas for moving the series forward, but shoddy animations and lousy collision detection make it not worth the effort and wind up dragging down the otherwise stellar gameplay and controls.
Read Full Review
80
XboxAddict
The thing I’d really like to express is the need for online play. It’s not an option in this generation of games; it’s almost a requirement, especially for a game of this kind. A significantly longer career mode would be nice.
Read Full Review
80
games(TM)
Year on year, the main modes in the THPS games have moved further away from traditional over-the-top skating to encompass more and more 'crazy' goals, something we're not entirely sure we approve of. One thing we are sure of, though, is that the core skating engine makes for by far the best extreme sports game of this generation. [Christmas 2003, p.98]
80
Total Video Games
On one hand it feels as though the game doesn’t push the franchise far enough, mainly because the story isn’t tied into the gameplay strongly enough, but on the other hand THUG offers far more then previous Tony Hawks titles and is still as enjoyable as it was in 1999.
Read Full Review
70
Xbox Nation Magazine
The on-foot play mechanic and the expanded story mode stand as the game's weakest elements. [Mar 2004, p.85]
65
Weekly Famitsu
6 / 7 / 7 / 6 - 26 [Vol 805; 28 May 2004]
64
Xequted
The plot itself makes THUG both the best and worst game with a Tony Hawk label. While having a central story is a refreshing change of pace to the series, but to say that the plot is weak is a huge understatement.
Read Full Review
50
Gamestyle
They've managed to dilute the entire essence of the extreme sports genre into a cheap, unsubtle and far too easy story-based adventure.
Read Full Review
50
Edge Magazine
The fifth Tony Hawk's title doesn't just suffer because of its embarrassing attempts to be edgy and urban, it's poorer because it lacks the verve and imagination so prevalent in previous iterations. [Christmas 2003, p.122]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steve P. gave it a9:
I've been a fan of the Tony Hawk Games for a wile and this is the best one yet. By Pro Skater 3 I was bord of the same old Skateboarding games. THPS4 gave use some new stuff. But Underground Actualy had a FUN that's right FUN single player mode. Usally I just punch in a corce unlock cheat and play them on Free Skate but I was not only able to beat this one's single player but enjoyed it. It also introduced a story to the game. The THPS games had no story, you just did random tasks to unlock leavles untill you won a compitition and went to the creadits. But this one had a story about a Skater Punk that gose Pro. It's kinda cheassy but it's better than not knowing what the hell your doing for no reason. It's a change for the better.

Jacob B. gave it a 10:
This game is sick.

Aaron W. gave it a 10:
It is the best Tony Hawk's game yet!

Nick G. gave it a 10:
This game is awesome, its not just about skateboarding, you also have to get off your board and do something, save a friend from druggies, or get a student's purse back... its awesome, and there are soooo many places to play in.... this is a must have for all TONY HAWK fans!

Uter gave it a 9:
It's a great game, but probably not as good, quality wise, as thps3 or thps4. The story, although an awesome idea, feels a bit uninspired.

Arttu J. gave it a 10:
The best Tony Hawk game. Beautiful graphics, smooth tricks, good story... Don't miss this.

Mike C. gave it a 10:
This game is cool. Especially since you can import your own face onto it.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this game in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use