Tony Hawk's Underground



"Hey, man, that run was bullshit. But in a good way."

- -Bam Margera

Tony Hawk's Underground (commonly abbreviated as THUG) is a short series of two games that came between the classic THPS games and the rest of the series. It was the first in the series to feature an actual story line, and introduced the ability to get off your board and jump all over shit.

The first THUG was released for the PS2, Game Cube, Xbox, and GBA, and followed the player character as they rise to stardom with their childhood friend, Eric Sparrow, then have a bitter falling out after Eric starts becoming jealous as the player character starts to leave Sparrow in his dust, before Eric gets drunk and hijacks a tank. It's funny, but still quite a bit Darker and Edgier and action-oriented than the rest of the series. A PC port also exists if you're Australian.

The second game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2: World Destruction Tour, focused on the titular World Destruction Tour, which is totally not similar to Jackass. The celeb skaters (Which are largely made up of people involved with Jackass) are divided in to two teams and do dangerous and stupid stunts for points. The player character in this game takes a back seat to celebrity slapstick shenanigans as the tour takes him or her all across the world, to 4 continents in total.

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This sub-series provides examples of:
"Bam: Tanks. Oh, tanks. Look at these tanks. [Later] It's so good, we can't go skating now, look at these tanks."
 * Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: You can play as Bigfoot in Underground 2.
 * Butt Monkey: Eric Sparrow, and to a lesser extent, Bob Burnquist in 2.
 * Continuity Nod
 * In the player character's room in Underground, there's a poster of Daisy on the wall, a skater from Pro Skater 4. There's also a crude mockup version of her without her most memorable characteristic in the "Pre-Made Custom Skaters" section.
 * Ollie the Bum makes his final appearance in the series towards the beginning of Underground, although he looks and sounds much less comedic and much more like a cracked-out homeless person. And he's no longer "Magic".
 * Eric Sparrow is one of the pro skaters on Bam's team in Underground 2, but he doesn't play a major role. He's treated as the Butt Monkey throughout the game, with the player character and Sparrow switching teams for a level at one point. While the switch is in place, Hawk messages you saying that they need you back on the team because Sparrow just bailed and took out a brass band in the process (possibly killing the tuba player).
 * Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: When Underground 2 is installed on a Windows Vista or 7 computer, the games browser identifies it as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
 * Face Heel Turn: at the end of the story.
 * Five-Man Band: Tony's team in THUG 2
 * The Hero: Tony Hawk
 * The Lancer: Rodney Mullen
 * The Big Guy: Mike V
 * The Smart Guys: Rodney Mullen and Chad Muska
 * The Chick: The player
 * The Sixth Ranger: Bob Burnquist
 * Flanderization: Bam Margera is, well... Bam Margera, only turned Up to Eleven.

"Bam: Wow, ... LET'S BLOW IT UP!"
 * Fun with Acronyms: THUG. Followed by the perplexing THAW with American Wasteland.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * There's a sign in the Hawaii level in Underground that says "Yummy Weiners" and has a boy with a peculiar-looking hot dog in his mouth.
 * There's a porn movie theater in the Los Angeles level of the third game (recreated in Underground 2). If you couldn't guess it by the ambiguous movie titles on the marquee, the names of the gaps that involve it leave no shadow of doubt.
 * Groin Attack: At the end of the Boston level, Hawk's team have to lose a guy by having the team play Russian Roulette with a tennis ball launcher at crotch level.
 * Handicapped Badass: Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan, who, despite being in a wheelchair and having casts all over most of his body, is still willing to kick and insult the player character.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: The dialogue in the first THUG is cleverly written to avoid using the character's name but still seem fluid. In the second game, the player character is so unimportant to the story it doesn't really come up.
 * Idiot Ball: Eric keeps screwing the player character over at every single opportunity, yet the player character keeps forgiving him and asking him for help. It isn't until Eric frames the player character for grand theft tank and massive property damage, leaving him stranded in Moscow without a passport that they finally take the hint.
 * Interface Spoiler: Underground 2 has three:
 * The intro features random cutscenes from the game, including
 * The main menu is on the "Wheel of Loogies", which won't be introduced for quite a while after the game starts.
 * The credits video can be accessed at any time, but it features spoilers about the plot and objectives.
 * Karma Houdini: Eric in the first game who after several attempts to get the player kicked off the team, finally succeeds in the Russian level when he runs off after drunkenly driving a tank and leaving the player locked in it to take the blame. He continues on gaining fame and money while the player has to work his way back home after being abandoned by the skate team. Granted the player recovers from this and goes on to make a successful series of skating videos and even punch out Eric on the second play through the final challenge. But he never really does pay for the tank incident by the end. The second game however fixed this by including him on the losing side of the tour and constantly getting humiliated until he's eventually shipped off when it was time to out one of the skaters.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Played with. The losing team of the World Destruction Tour has to foot the bill for all damages caused by both teams during the contest; and Nigel Beaverhausen (Writer-Producer-Director) tries to persuade them to let him film and release the footage of the tour, before resorting to doing it without their permission..
 * No Final Boss for You: At the end of the first game, Eric Sparrow turns up and taunts the player character with the tape of their Crowning Moment of Awesome from earlier in the game, which only Eric and the main character were witness to, before challenging the player to follow Eric's run across the entirity of the New Jersey level, whilst Eric is throwing things at you. Play through the game a second time, and as Eric pulls out the tape and starts taunting the main character, they just punch him out and take the tape.
 * Nostalgia Level: Several courses from the first three games are unlockable.
 * Planet Heck: The Kiss concert in Underground
 * Retraux: One of the unlockable skaters in Underground 2 is Tony Hawk as he was depicted in Pro Skater 1, complete with pixelated textures.
 * Skate Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Naturally.
 * Shout-Out:
 * The "Star Wars Kid" can be found in a hidden room in 2.
 * The Kiss concert in Underground.
 * The Smurfette Principle: If the player character is female, she will be the only prominent female character in Underground 2.
 * Smug Snake: Eric. Sparrow.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: The end of the second game, so very much. It can effectively be summed up as something like this...


 * Supporting Protagonist: The player character in Underground 2.
 * The Other Darrin: Possible - The first game forced all created skaters to use the same voice (Although it changed depending on the gender) in the story mode; whilst the second game (Despite it being the same character) allowed the player to choose from a number of voices, including the voice from the previous game.
 * Updated Rerelease: Underground 2 's PSP port, Underground 2: Remix, includes four new levels.

"You own the underground."