From the Toysit archive
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2
A look at Underground 2’s virtual skating and park creation, its preserved 2004 event photograph, and an original paper skatepark exhibition.
The play at a glance
A skating world to explore and reshape
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 presents the city as a virtual playground of routes, goals and customized spaces. Toysit’s original event photograph adds a human moment to that idea: an adult and a child gathered around a game demonstration. The accompanying October 2004 report identifies them as Leeza Gibbons and her son Nathan at a fundraiser supporting skate parks.
Before using a slim PS2: compare its adaptor with the CPSC recall identifiers. If it matches, stop using it and follow the notice’s Sony replacement instructions. This concerns certain power adaptors, not this game.
Goals, routes and a park of your own
The PS2 manual describes Story Mode’s team competition and Classic Mode’s timed goals, including collecting letters and reaching scores. A route can be interesting for its sequence: a turn, a change of height, a landmark and the next place to aim for. Focus Mode temporarily slows the virtual action when its conditions are met.
Create-A-Park brings that interest in layout into an editor. Pieces can be positioned and rotated to make a space, with goals giving a route a purpose. The manual also distinguishes created skaters and graphics. These are game tools for arranging an imagined world; the exaggerated action is not instruction for real skating.
Try a paper skatepark exhibition
Make a flat drawing of a fictional skatepark and give it an exhibition title: Lantern Plaza, Orbit Yard or The Painted Loop. Use pencils and paper; the project is a map and a narrated scene.
- Draw an entrance, three distinctive landmarks and a separate viewing area. Use symbols and a small key so someone else can read the map.
- Add a dotted route between the landmarks. Give each stop a name and a color.
- Write three commentator cards describing the imaginary journey: where it begins, what changes along the way and how it finishes.
- Let a partner be the exhibition visitor. They can request a new route, name a mural or write a welcome sign.
Keep every feature on the page. No ramps, riding or real-world stunts are part of this activity. Rearrange the drawn route to make a second exhibition with a calmer or more theatrical mood.
The historical record
Original Toysit coverage
The complete earlier product account and commentary are preserved below as historical coverage.
Leeza Gibbons and her son enjoy skateboard video game at event to support the building of skate parks
In October 2004, television news journalist and host, radio personality, producer, and businesswoman Leeza Gibbons and her son Nathan demoed the new Tony Hawk video game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, at the Tony Hawk Foundation event to support building of skate parks in neighborhoods that need help. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is the latest evolution of the number one action sports franchise where two teams led by Tony Hawk and Bam Margera skate new environments, pull off mischievous pranks, and make a variety of international cities their personal stomping ground.
Join Tony Hawk and skate through a hilarious story, amazing customization, and tons of high flying moves. Tear it up with sticker slaps, projectiles, crazy vehicles, hilarious tantrums, and slow-motion Focus Control. Play as yourself, your teammates, or over 20 special guest skaters. Join the no rules, no limits world tour. Create your own logo for use in graffiti tags, plus create goals, parks, and get your face in the game.
For Playstation 2, XBox, Game Cube, and Game Boy Advance.
The Tony Hawk skateboarding video games have become iconic in both the gaming and skateboarding communities for their addictive gameplay and realistic representation of skate culture. First released in 1999, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series allowed players to perform a variety of tricks and stunts in virtual skate parks, often accompanied by a soundtrack featuring popular punk, rock, and hip-hop tracks. These games introduced a new generation to skateboarding, making the sport more mainstream while also giving seasoned skaters a way to enjoy their passion digitally. The controls are often intuitive, yet offer depth, allowing players to string together complicated trick combinations for high scores. Various iterations have introduced features like story modes, character customization, and online multiplayer, continuously evolving to engage fans. The series has helped immortalize skateboarding legends, including Tony Hawk himself, and has significantly influenced the skateboarding subculture.
Sources and editorial notes
The new gameplay description follows the Activision/Neversoft US PS2 manual. The archive also names Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance, but their features are not assumed identical. Network play, uploads, imported faces and old online services are historical features, not current service promises. Event identities come from the original report; no photographer or license is invented. No physical testing is claimed.
- Original Toysit image — Existing same-site image reviewed and retained unchanged.
- Activision/Neversoft US PS2 instruction booklet — Original publisher scan; selected controls, Focus Mode, story, classic and Create-A-Park pages reviewed with diagrams.
- Original Toysit coverage — Complete historical account retained, including its original claims and wording.
- CPSC: certain slim PS2 AC adaptors — Conditional hardware owner check; this is not a recall of the software. Match the notice’s model, date and serial identifiers.
Images and descriptions are retained as historical material. How Toysit covers toys.
Created for Toysit by Tabbloza — the artwork in our header.