After the events of THUG are done and dusted, you find yourself moving into the esteemed skating circles of Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, and the other guys who are the best skaters in the world. Your hometown of New Jersey is the setting for a rather unnerving prank played on you by a chainsaw-wielding Bam who announces that you and the rest of pros are going on a little trip around the world to cause tons of Jackass-style shenanigans and take in the best skate spots across the globe.

This so-called "World Destruction Tour" will be tackled by two teams -- Tony's guys and Bam's madmen -- with the winners receiving a free trip at the expense of the losing squad. As you begin, you're picked to join Tony's team -- albeit being chosen behind a 10-year-old kid in a body cast and wheelchair who is insultingly favored by Team Bam. Each team must skate through multiple cities from around the world, completing over-the-top goals as they go. The more points won, the better chance your team has of not picking up the ungodly tab for the trip.

And so the single-player story mode for THUG 2 begins. I've been skating my pants off in a level-locked build of the game for a few days, and so far all signs are pointing to another winner for Neversoft and Activision. There's so much new cool stuff, too many refinements to mention, and a serious lack of respect for Joe Public here. And it's all good! THUG 2 is a much more colorful, lighthearted affair than the first in the series, and while it keeps everything intact, it also adds a huge amount of new moves, techniques, characters, and sweet online play and customizations.


The single-player World Destruction Tour mode is a blast so far. The cutscenes and story I've witnessed so far are freaking awesome, featuring lots of whacky Jackass-like antics and humor. In fact, along with Bam you can expect to see Phil as Team Bam's hapless mascot, tiny Weeman, and also Steve-O (who rides a mechanical bull instead of a deck). Kicking off in Boston, Tony's team must pursue a huge laundry list of goals around the massive level -- in fact, these are the biggest levels seen so far in the THPS series -- which, thankfully, can now be tackled in any order. Freeform skating is the order of the day, it seems.

Goals include knocking the heads off of statues, setting your desk on fire, and lighting a couple of level-rending cannons and praying while painting your new totally customizable tags over ATMs. Each city in the game has one "level-changing event" which completely alters the geometry, opening up tons more skating lines and giving access to previously hidden areas. In Boston's case, this was achieved by those cannons I mentioned. There are other hidden areas, too, which might contain a "guest" skater. I found friggin' Benjamin Franklin hiding inside a high-rise office block fer chrissake! There's plenty of off-the-wall stuff to find and abuse here.