Once again, Tony Hawk and Activision have teamed up for another installment of their famed skateboarding game franchise. The sixth in six years, “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2” doesn’t break any barriers or innovate in terms of game play. Regardless, “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2” is a respectable addition to the series.

The long history of the Tony Hawk series has seen considerable improvements across the board. It consistently pushed the boundaries of combo moves and graphic play. In recent years, however, the series has settled down, instead spotlighting changes in plot and locale, adding characters and smoothing appearances. “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2” falls more into this latter category, bringing in changes inspired by Bam Margera.

Story mode focuses around a giant scavenger hunt. Players are given a list of items and then let wild. Each time you discover a new character, including founding father Benjamin Franklin, you get new additions to the list. Each goal gives points and after sufficient points are gained you get to move onto a new level. The levels can get progressively harder, but they are fairly limited. They aren’t particularly difficult and tend to be pretty shallow, allowing players to finish story mode in around 10 hours.

Classic mode reverts to the structure of previous Tony Hawk games — timed levels and easily discovered goals. The levels are just repeats of levels found in story mode, along with classic Tony Hawk levels all the way back to the first in the series. While an interesting addition, in practice it does little to add to the game play. It seems more like Activision realized that some gamers may not take to the scavenger hunt and decided to keep the classic mode as a nod to them.

There are few new functions worth mentioning. The new sticker slap, which is a killer wall plant, is useful for getting back onto railings and keeping combo moves going. There are a couple minor changes in wall plants that come in handy at certain points in the game, but otherwise aren’t particularly useful. There are also a couple of new spins, including the natas spin.

If you fall too often, your character might be prone to getting angry. Too many falls, combined with too much controller activity, causes your character to become enraged and break his board. You get a new board, but at a steep price in points. The combo moves available off the new board can ultimately surpass the point penalty, but since most game play revolves around plot and not points, it’s not worth the loss of time.

While we didn’t have a chance to fully test the online functions, both PC and Playstation versions allow online play. Play is said to be similar to previous versions, except that the Playstation version allows face mapping through EyeToy support.

The real difference between “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2” and the previous games is the plot itself. With the inclusion of Bam Margera and his band of misfits, the game has taken on a different tone. It is more reminiscent of a skateboarding version of Rockstar Games’ “Grand Theft Auto” series than anything else. Game goals revolve around vandalism and destruction as much as skating ability. You get just as far by throwing tomatoes at passersby as you do by performing any combo move.

This seems to be an odd choice for both Activision and Tony Hawk. The series has always prided itself on innovation and maturation, yet the game is more a combination of the innovation of other titles than of the Tony Hawk brand. Plus, the inclusion of vandalism and violence seems to go against the long and distinguished career of Tony Hawk himself, who helped bring respectability to skating by scrubbing the punk image.

So, what is happening to the Tony Hawk franchise? Has Activision decided to turn a blind eye to the innovations that have raised it to the level it currently enjoys, or are they simply coasting through while planning a major revolution? Only time will tell, but meanwhile we are left with “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2”, a respectable addition.

Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 is available for PC, Xbox, Playstation and Gamecube.