5 games and running and the series has yet to let me down.  The Tony Hawk series is like the Madonna of the video game world; constantly reinventing itself while keeping the basic ingredients that make it kick so much ass intact.  Now, I’m sure eventually (like Madonna herself) the series will take a turn for the worse, but until that day comes Neversoft will hopefully keep serving up my yearly Tony Hawk fix. 

                Tony Hawk’s Underground has some very significant improvements over the last one.  Below I’ve constructed a list of each TH sequel's improvements over the last.

                                Tony Hawk 1 �E/span> Tony Hawk 2 :
                                -          Quickened the pace of the game dramatically
                                -          Added the oh-so necessary manual
                                -          Expanded the size of levels and improved graphics 

Tony Hawk 2 �E/span> Tony Hawk 3:
-          Added the Revert (making combo lines even LONGER)
-          Bigger levels and more goals
-          GRAPHICS ENGINE OVERHALL (PS1 to PS2 essentially) 

Tony Hawk 3 �E/span> Tony Hawk 4:
-          No time limit!  Approach skaters for goals
-          Spine transfer (cough!unnecessary!cough)]
-          Slightly larger levels
-          Customizable soundtrack (for lucky XBOX owners) 

Tony Hawk 4 �E/span> Tony Hawk Underground
-          All of the above (obviously)
-          Story Mode
-          Custom Face In-game
-          Endless combos by getting off the board and continuing
-          Tallest and largest levels to date (someareas are stories high!)

               As you can see, the series has come a ways over the years, and has yet to fail to gamers and critics alike.  As for the plot of the story mode, it’s quite well done, and the first time through will take the average gamer roughly 6 hours or so to complete.  After that you can work on high score modes, online play, or simply local multiplayer.  The replay value is great. 

                I’ve been playing this Tony Hawk a whole lot more than number 4, it’s very well done and a welcome change of pace for the series.  I was getting tired of just meeting the pros (Tony Hawk,  Burnquist, etc.) just standing around in levels.  Now when you meet these people, it’s meaningful, and exciting.  Bam from Jackass is pretty hilarious to boot.  The dialog for the cutscenes and the plot twists and betrayals are fantastically done as well. 

                Still that’s not to say that the game is without faults.  They really need to get more inventive with the levels.  3 or so of the 10+ levels on Underground just seem sloppily thrown together, with a lack of interesting gaps and locations (i.e. Tampa Bay in particular) and when they throw an old level in there (unlockable bonuses), it’d be nice if they updated the textures.