Title: ‘Tony Hawk Underground 2’Genre: SportsPlatform: Gamecube/PS2/XBoxPublisher: ActivisionPrice: $49.99Rating: 2/5

Continuing the ongoing march toward being a Madden-style sports franchise, ‘Tony Hawk Underground 2,’ or ‘THUG 2,’ is this year’s installment in the venerable ‘Tony Hawk’ series. Much like the recent sequels, ‘THUG 2’ continues to be an overall decent game while doing little to make any sort of improvement on any of the previous games.

On the positive side, it is a ‘Tony Hawk’ game, and for newbies to the series, it’s not a terrible introduction. There is still the incredibly enjoyable skateboarding simulation and irreverent charm that the series has always had, even though it seems to become more and more like an advertisement for MTV and ‘Jackass’ with each progressive sequel. Aside from the often tedious and gimmicky story mode which forces gamers to go through a massive checklist of annoying goals with each level, there is also a classic mode which successfully attempts to recreate the magic of the earliest games in the series by replicating old levels, two-minute time limits and short goal lists.

But then, there is the massive negative side. The graphics are embarrassing compared to every other game released in the past two months, and especially for one with such a legacy behind it as the ‘Tony Hawk’ series. It seems like the artists are stuck on the limitations of the original PlayStation rather than taking any advantage of the modern processing power in the current lineup of consoles. This further limits the coolness factor of the classic mode, as the unimpressive graphical improvements mean there is no real reason to buy this game rather than just play the original ‘Tony Hawk Pro Skater’ games.

Additionally, there are really no game play improvements from the previous games in the series. There are a few new tricks which add a slight expansion to the versatility of the skaters’ movement, such as being able to continue a combo-nearly-gone-wrong by jumping off of a wall, but this is nowhere near enough to necessitate a brand new game. Unfortunately, this appears to be the way the series is heading – all a new ‘Tony Hawk’ game consists of is a few new moves, levels, character models and minor graphical improvements in an attempt to bank on the name.

Basically, anyone who has played any of the earlier ‘Tony Hawks’ knows exactly what to expect in ‘THUG 2,’ aside from a few superficialities. And unless the prospective player is either new to the series or a huge fan of gimmicks or the ‘Jackass’ show, don’t expect to be very entertained by this game for more than a few days at best.