Tony Hawk's Underground

Tony Hawk's Underground, also called THUG and released in 2003, is a skateboarding video game available for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, GBA and Xbox platforms. It is the fifth console game in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. It features the ability to create a custom character, and is playable online on the PS2 version. Unlike its predecessors, THUG focuses heavily on its story mode, and to this extent includes a large number of in-game cutscenes. THUG was also the first game in the series to introduce the ability to travel around levels on foot.

Game mechanics

A constantly changing mechanic in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series is the gaining of skill. In other games, this was accomplished by either earning money which went toward unlocking levels, buying skateboard gear, and improving skills; or by finding floating tokens in each level which were worth one skill point each. In THUG, specific (usually skill-related) achievements increase the player's skill in each of 10 categories. For example, doing at least a certain number of tricks while in the air after launching off a quarter- or halfpipe can increase the player's Air rating, giving them more airtime. Holding a rail grind (or manual slide) for a length of time increases the player's balance on those moves. The set of moves is harder in higher difficulty settings; a rail grind of twenty seconds is one of the final accomplishments in Normal difficulty, but one of the first in Sick difficulty.

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For the first time in the series, the player can walk around, rather than skateboard. This is necessary to reach some locations and challenges. This is linked to the Caveman move; the player is now able to leave his skateboard in the middle of a combo of moves, and continue his combo elsewhere, as long as he or she continues within a time limit. This time limit is another skill that can be improved.

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Two more new moves added to the series in THUG are wall plants (jumping toward, and pushing off, a wall) and wall pushes (skating toward, and pushing off, a wall).

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