[It’s Go Skateboarding Day! And to celebrate, we’re publishing this story about Tony Hawk’s Underground. It was originally meant to run on the game’s thirteenth birthday, but somehow got lost in our CMS. Two years later, here it is. Fuck Eric Sparrow. -Ray]
Tony Hawk’s Underground starts on a depressing note. Its first level is a digital recreation of the Garden State that’s a mess of decrepit row homes and cracked asphalt. Unlike previous Pro Skater levels, New Jersey doesn’t have perfect handrails or embellished takes on iconic skate spots. Instead, there are shitty streets, drained concrete basins, and a bunch of drug dealers.
New Jersey is hardly the best level ever featured in a Tony Hawk game. It is, however, one of the most important. Tony Hawk’s Underground is an underdog story, and underdogs tend to come from dirt. Like Bon Jovi and Bruce, Redman and Ted Leo, the protagonist of Underground rises from Jersey before taking the world by storm.
Source: Destructoid Tony Hawk’s Underground is pretty cool for a teenager