Directions for Tony Hawk's Underground

Start a new story from the main menu. You will be given a difficulty option allowing the game to be made easier for newcomers to the series or harder for experienced "Tony Hawk" players. You will now be asked to customize your character: select from the various options available, such as skin tone, hairdo, sex, height, weight and clothes. Follow the on-screen instructions as they slowly introduce you to the controls and tricks upon which you will be relying for most of the game.

Learn how to perform the tricks. For the most part, tricks are performed while on your skateboard and are collected into groups. "Grab tricks" are performed by getting your player to get air by jumping or skating up the side of a ramp and pressing a certain action button and a certain direction on the d-pad or analogue stick. Different directions will make the player do different tricks. "Flip tricks" are when the character flips the board around and are performed by jumping in the air and pressing a different action button and direction. "Lip tricks" are performed by getting the character to go up a ramp and balancing on the edge of them. "Manual tricks" are when the character balances on certain parts of his board and are performed by pressing up and down on the directional pad. Pressing the action buttons makes the character perform different manual tricks.

Learn to connect tricks together. Some of the tasks in the story mode require you to earn points by performing "combos," which are combinations of tricks that you must string together using various methods. To join tricks together without breaking a combo, you can either enter a manual or "revert." To enter a revert, when you are coming down a half pipe or ramp, press the corner left and right buttons. You must combine this with a manual to keep the combo going. High scores don't have to be executed in a combo, although the more tricks you perform in a combo, the more points you get when you land it --- so it is sometimes a good idea to try to get as many points of a high score as you can in a combo.

Explore THUG's "Classic Mode," which reverts to the old "Tony Hawk" formula of simply performing tricks and combos to get high scores. Not only is this fun for enthusiasts of the original "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" series, but it also extends the life of the game for new fans and provides them with more levels to explore on their skateboards. You can select from a wide variety of professional skateboarders to play as. There are also multiplayer games to play such as Catch the Flag, and Tag, which are fun for two players.