Like the previous games in the series, there has always been that one new significant improvement to the gameplay that opens up new options and creativity to the player. This time Neversoft has included the ability to get off your board to walk around and spline transfers. This opens up two new significant changes. The first is you can link combos together by hopping off your board for a short bit in the middle of a trick and chaining it into another trick. Before you start imagining infinite combos, there is a limited amount of time that you can be off your board, and that meter doesn't reset each consecutive time you utilize it during a combo. This opens a lot of freedom in chaining combos together since you are no longer limited to the plane that you are on. Think up, because the sky is the limit this time.

Probably the most interesting addition to Tony Hawk Underground is the Story Mode. One might think it's nothing but a gimmick to throw some cut scenes in between areas and chapters, but I actually like the change. The story aspect actually helps the flow of the game. Instead of just doing random tasks all over the place, you feel more of a purpose and progression for doing those tasks. Tasks will up the difficulty as you progress as well. For those who still don't care about the additional story aspects can simply skip them.

While that may be the most interesting addition to the game, it is actually hard to pinpoint the best new feature as there is just a ton of them in the mix now. If there was a theme to this year's Tony Hawk, it would have to be customization. You can create your own goals, tricks, character, levels, and decks. All of this customization can also be utilized online as well on the PlayStation 2 version.

Create-A-Trick is also another new significant enhancement which allows you to link together a number of moves, grabs, rotations, etc, together to form an all new trick. You can set it so that numerous things happen at once, slightly overlap, or happen one after another. You can also set the duration for several of the moves too. Depending on what you are modifying, there are a number of attributes that can be tweaked. Depending on what you create will determine what value in points the trick will be.

If you don't like the level designs included, the new and improved Create-A-Level mode will certainly be what you're looking for. Within the editor, you can make considerably large levels that can rival the designs of the pre-set levels themselves. You have access to all sorts of props to implement including full sized houses, buildings, and even freeway structures.

On top of being able to design very in depth and detailed levels, you can also create goals for you and your friends to compete in. Through the editor, you can place where the person is that you talk to initiate the goal, the starting place for each player, and define what the goal is. Goals include trying to reach a certain score, spelling "SKATE" or "COMBO, doing tricks as they are called out to you and more. Since you are in command of the goals, you can lay out the goal within the level as you wish.

I've already mentioned that fans of the series would be happy, but it should be noted that novice players have not been ignored either. In the story mode, there are new settings for people who have never played the game before and people who have played but have yet come to grips with it. In the easiest setting, the physics have been altered a bit to make it easier to do tricks in the air as well as to prevent you from crashing as often. In the next setting, goals have been changed a bit so they aren't as difficult. Between these two settings should help ease new and novice gamers into the series. In addition, the story mode itself helps those who are rusty by guiding you through how to do certain tricks and moves.

Graphically both versions look excellent while maintaining a smooth 60 fps framerate. The Xbox has the slight edge but having a slightly cleaner look which also makes the image look a bit soft as well. It's more noticeable when looking at the menus than in the game though.

Where the graphics shine is in the design and detail of the wide variety of levels. From the suburban neighborhoods of New Jersey, to the large city of Manhattan, and even the really compact and crowded location of Hawaii, there is enough variety to have you exploring for hours trying to think of how to utilize the environments. Watch the demos that play in between the title screen to help give you some hints as well.

Tony Hawk Underground is an addictive sequel which adds so much to the mix that you can't help but spend hours exploring it all. The additional online play found only in the PlayStation 2 version makes it the version to have regardless of minor graphical enhancements in the Xbox version. On the Xbox side though, aside from some minor graphical enhancements, there still is the advantage of the custom soundtracks that you can create on the Xbox's hard drive. Regardless which version you get, both games are a blast and should please any fan of the series and welcomes people new to the series.

Xbox score: B+