Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Review - PC

For the PSP's launch, publishers have played it safe. The initial batch of titles is heavily weighted toward ports of established console favorites. After all, what better way to sell software than to present something people like? When the package is crammed full of great features old and new, who can complain? That's the case with Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix, which is among the best titles currently available for the PSP.

Portable Mayhem

As before, the focus here is on creating insanely long strings of skate tricks, jumping off buildings, and generally causing mayhem across the world. Much of the sprawling content in THUG2 is devoted to the story mode, where the player's custom skater goes on a world tour with Bam Margera and Tony Hawk. Each of the 16 cities (four of which are new) boasts four playable characters and dozens of missions. Tasks range from skating intricate lines to pelting pedestrians with tomatoes.

If the story mode feels too involved, classic Hawk gameplay is also on-hand, wherein players have a two-minute time limit in which to complete tasks. Here, it's back to the good old days of collecting the letters in 'skate' and 'combo' while doing an unbroken string of tricks. After the pure un-timed freedom found in story mode, the time limit can seem unnecessarily restrictive. But this is a satisfying way to show off the moves you've come up with while the timer isn't running.

First Class Ripping

The story mode cutscenes may be juvenile--they'll definitely grate on some players--but the in-game presentation is all class. The free-roaming city areas are jammed with visual detail, and slowdown is only a factor in the most densely drawn areas. Shaba Games has done a fantastic job scaling the game to PSP size, and you won't for a moment feel as if it's been compromised.

The same goes for the excellent soundtrack. Classic Metallica and Stooges tracks sit side-by-side with newer punk cuts and great hip-hop. EA may trumpet the soundtracks in its releases, but none can top this. Sadly, there's no way to import songs, but players can choose which tracks they want in rotation.

If there's a failing in THUG2, it's that the PSP controls sometimes can't provide the leverage needed to nail the most intense tricks. Some jumps can be frustrating at first, and the toughest tricks and lines take real practice. But everything can be done, if only players persevere.

Frontside Port

Sadly, there's no support for infrastructure play, but up to four players can take advantage of 11 competitive game modes in ad hoc play, and the wireless competition works wonderfully. There's even an option to skate with a custom skater bearing your own face, by importing an image when creating a skater. Simply put, there are few launch releases that pack in so much content. That it's all great stuff means Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix is both one of the best PSP titles out there, and a textbook example of how to do a port right.