The Boarders
The long-lived Tony Hawk series is back again with the sequel to last year's wide ranging, "get off the board" spectacular, this time with an even deeper (and much funnier) story mode and a completely separate classic mode that lets you practice your old-skool Hawk-ing skills and finally get that stinkin' video tape. But what makes Tony Hawk's Underground 2 work so well isn't just the insane level design or nearly perfectly honed tricks and gameplayit's the coolest, weirdest, most hilarious cast of skaters since thatRollerball remake.
Keep on truckin' with THUG 2.
Our Hero
No, not Tony Hawk, though he certainly is a hero to many. I'm talking about the nameless chump that you play for most of the World Destruction Tour (hopefully you took some time and customized the character to your liking). Your basic skater is the character you use to accomplish most in-level goals, and you also use him to find special guest skaters as well as characters that give you perfectly simple missions, like grinding a rail in New Orleans to fend of zombies or grinding a statue in Boston to take off its head. You can level up your main skater's skills by performing new and better tricks (leveling up is automatic; you're notified when it happens). This happens frequently on the training level, but as you progress through the tour, stat increases will become fewer and farther between.
Paulie: a portrait of pure evil.
Paulie
One of your character's adversaries is this freaky kid in a body cast and wheelchair who is utterly, completely evil. I mean it, Paulie's got a little lump of coal somewhere beneath his shattered ribs. That doesn't mean he won't plague you all along the tour, as he's on the other team (yes, the guy in the body cast was chosen for Bam's team before you were). In addition to providing South Park-quality comedic interludes, Paulie challenges you to races and other competitions that can either end in your skills getting better or you getting yourself completely humiliated.
Ben Franklin: scholar, patriot, hardcore skater.
Ben Franklin
Nope, this ain't some skater who just happens to have the name of the randiest Founding Father in this great nation's history—this is the real deal, the dude with the electric kite who's on the money. You have to track him down by pulling off some serious tricking on the Boston Leg of the tour, but then you get to show your spirit of 1776 in style. Complete the level to unlock Benji for free skate mode!
Jesse James
One of the licensed badasses of the West Coast Choppers crew, Jesse James is a playable skater (kinda) in the Boston level. Just track down the place where everyone knows his name—a bar called Jeers—with your main skater character, and you get the chance to ride Jesse's scooter. (Actually, it looks a lot like a Segway, but I'm sure not going to tell him.)
The wrath of Bam!
Bam Margera
The leader of Team Bam helps you train up and provide missions, though technically you're competing with his guys (you're Hawk's boy, whether you want to be or not). He proves to be an early nemesis even in the training level—Bam's training challenges are the toughest you hit up to that point, and might be tricky even forTHUG vets.
Tony Hawk
Just some guy—who happens to be the single biggest name in skateboarding worldwide (in fact, before Hawk came along it's debatable whether anyone was a "big name" in skateboarding at all). He's also the captain of your team on the World Destruction Tour, having gotten stuck with you when Bam took Paulie instead. Seriously, if you don't know who Tony Hawk is, you might be reading the wrong article.
Now, get out there and start unlocking and boarding.
By Danny Chihdo
