Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Every Game Ranked Worst To Best
6. Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Most players will look back on THUG 2 - as it’s most colloquially known - and recall a nostalgic feeling of nothing but admiration for this title. Some even tend to call this the highlight of the series and the last shred of decency in a soon to be growing timeline of mediocrity. As its sixth place placement on this list concurs, though, it’s not the greatest ride of the classic era, but it certainly contains a healthy portion of what made it so indulgent.
After the release of the original THUG, the series moved into a capricious combination of grounded, old-school missions and some less than realistic features. This made the experience seem both authentic and derivative of what made it so well-received. The addition of exponentially wacky schemes and missions - embellishing the moniker of the world destruction tour - cranks the believability factor up to ludicrous.
After Bam Margera and Tony Hawk literally kidnap you at the start of the game, you then spend the remainder of it basically f*cking s*it up to intolerable degrees. The challenge is gone and the focus on actual skateboarding is limited. Subjugated by the inclusion of an Animal House-esque storyline that makes you long for the simpler, skating oriented perfection of the Pro Skater series.
It was a formula switch that turned the corner too sharply, ultimately making the game feel like more of a parody than a true successor.