Game #1118: Tony Hawk's Underground 2(Gameboy Advance)

 Skating apes.

 Well, it's time to play my favorite Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, albeit now on the Gameboy Advance. Well, turns out I was right, Underground 2 is better than Amerikan Sk8land in a few areas I thought it would. It's still far from perfect, but hey!

 The game starts you off creating your own skater and... my god, why does everyone have huge heads and hands? It's a very weird stylistic choice that doesn't fit the series or the game, nor does it make it easier to see your character or how they move, so... what gives? The game features Arcade Mode(Classic), Free Skate and the Story Mode, and all play exactly like you'd expect. 

 The game is made up of about 7 Skate parks, a few missing from the original console game, and the others are truncated to better fit the isometrical perspective. If you've played the original you'll be able to recognize key sections from these adapted skateparks. For whatever reason, Suburbia, from Tony Hawk 3, made it into the stages, which... is another weird choice. Maybe they figured they couldn't make decent adaptations of the missing stages? On the other hand, unlike the generic soundtrack from AS, we have about 3 licensed music tracks... that sound like garbage. The main menu music is particularly bad. Be careful what you wish for I guess. Oh and there's an in-game clock that does nothing, as the time of the day doesn't change anything, not even the lighting.

 The Story Mode is the meat and potatoes of the game. Just like in the console game, and unlike American Sk8land, you increase your stats by performing certain feats, such as three flips in a single combo. In Story Mode you are thrown into the stage and must find NPCs to trigger missions. Stages are much smaller than in American Sk8land, so finding missions is never a chore. That said, you'll notice that a lot of goals are repeated on every stage, most annoying of all, the minigames which involve pressing buttons when prompted or shooting tennis balls at passersby. Not only are the mechanics lame, but eventually these get too long. One type of mission that irked me were the races, in which you must drive through checkpoints... except that you have to search for the checkpoints because the screen is just too small. 

 The core gameplay elements are really solid, the game plays like Tony Hawk, albeit on an isometrical perspective. That said, there's a tiny wrench thrown into the mix... the Team mechanic from the console game. In the main game you had to find a Pro Skate, a Special Skater and a vehicle character, and each character unlocked a new set of challenges. They tried something like that, in this game you start with an initial set of challenges that include a Team Challenge. You only need to finish the Team Challenge to move on to the next stage. Anyways, after you perform the challenge, you must find the van icon on the level and go into, change into a Pro character and perform the SAME objective. This will unlock Pro challenges as well as a few other Skater challenges. Problem: Only the Pro Skater can attempt Pro challenges, and only your created character can attempt Skater challenges, this means.... if you want to 100% the game there will be a lot of annoying pausing and character swapping. There are 3 Team challenges per stage, that means at least 5 character swaps. That said, when I was on the last two levels I discovered you can jump into the Skater van through the pause menu. Still, any character should've been able to attempt any challenge, it's a needless inconvenience.

 While still a few way off from what I'd consider the ideal take on an isometrical Tony Hawk game, I feel like this one is a much better option that the game that came after it. Even if some of the design elements leave a bit to be desired, and even though the art direction is less than ideal, I feel like the core gameplay is undeniably fun.

 6.0