It was developed by Neversoft released on October 4, 2004 in the U.S. for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, and Game Boy Advance platforms.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 received generally positive reviews, with praise for its gameplay, aesthetics and classic mode, but criticism for its story and lack of innovation.

The gameplay in Underground 2 is similar to that of previous Tony Hawk games: the player skates around in a 3D environment modeled after various cities and attempts to complete various goals.

New gameplay features include the Focus ability, which the player may trigger with a full Special gauge to cause time to slow down in order to help keep up their combo (by allowing greater control of their grind balance, for example); the Natas Spin, which can be performed on small surfaces like pillars or fire hydrants; and the Freak Out, which serves as another combo starter by having the player fill a gauge after certain bails, which will result in them angrily disposing of their board before continuing their session.

The protagonist of the first Underground is skating in their neighborhood hometown of New Jersey when Tony Hawk and Bam Margera kidnap them and take them to a dark room with pro skaters Bob Burnquist, Eric Koston, Rodney Mullen, Mike Vallely, Chad Muska, Wee-Man, Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan (a foul-mouthed kid who wears a body cast and drives a high-powered wheelchair) and Eric Sparrow (the protagonist's former friend-turned-rival from the first Underground game).

At that time though, word has spread out about the World Destruction Tour, which was supposed to be a low-profile event but now is appearing on TV news because of a video of Bam and Koston letting a bull trash Phil's room.

At that moment, an underground film "writer, producer, director" by the name of Nigel Beaverhausen wishes to bring the tour to the public but instead winds up being humiliated by Tony and Bam.

Bam dares the player, who is still stuck in the back end of Skatopia, to exit the flaming park in a combo, which he considers impossible.

It was nominated to be part of the Smithsonian's "The Art of Video Games" display for the PlayStation 2 section under the Action genre, but lost to Shadow of the Colossus.

[25] It received runner-up positions in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Alternative Sports Game" and "Best Licensed Music" award categories across all platforms.

[21] Ben Silverman of Game Revolution also thought the campaign was noticeably short, but also that "that's actually a blessing, though, because the plot and cut-scenes are pretty lame".

[24] Silverman particularly commended the soundtrack's variety for including songs outside the traditional skating genres of punk, rock, and hip hop (namely Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire").

[22] Conversely, Bramwell greatly disliked the soundtrack, although he admitted it suited its purpose of accompanying skateboarding and also found the graphical upgrades to be minor and noted frequent issues with slowdown.