Solaire goes X Games mode in Firelink Shrine thanks to Tony Hawk's Underground mods

Solaire positively going nuts with it in the air above Firelink.
(Image credit: Leon Massey)

"He's not 'going Hollow,' he's sick," judges games critic Leon Massey on Dark Souls' famous helper, Solaire of Astora, absolutely tearing it up skateboarding through Dark Souls' iconic hub area, Firelink Shrine. But how, how on earth did this come to be?

You can find both mod projects—Firelink Shrine by sockpuppetkingdom and Solaire by Syeo—on the THPSX website, home to a surprisingly active community of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater enthusiasts and modders. The forums produced a mod for Tony Hawk's Underground 2,"THUGPro," which serves to extend the features of Underground 2 and allow it to function as a unified platform for mods and levels across the classic Tony Hawk games.

Unfortunately, Underground 2 isn't available on any digital distribution platforms, and you'll need a full copy of the game to run THUGPro and any attendant user creations. Thankfully, Leon Massey was willing to share some screens and an impression of the level for those of us without the Underground 2 CDs rattling around somewhere.

The map's lonely 2019 review on THPSX from user ZZKer gives it a pretty high 4/5 score with a paradoxically negative summation of ""cool port; not the smoothest skate :/" Massey's impression was a bit more positive, noting that some curiously out-of-place rails give you surfaces to grind on, and that the graveyard past Frampt's chapel has been replaced with some bowls to do tricks in. I don't think anyone's gonna miss the jerk skeletons who lived there, but how are you supposed to get the Zweihander now?

Mechanics and layout aside, you have to appreciate the iconic image of Solaire just going nuts in Firelink, and the THUGPro project more broadly is an impressive labor of love for a neglected gem like Tony Hawk's Underground. Leon Massey, meanwhile, can be found on YouTube creating video essays on gaming mechanics and history, as well as on Twitch streaming various games old and new. 

Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.

Read more
Ten planks of wood from Dark Souls, responsible for my nightmares in Blighttown.
The co-creator of Dark Souls' most ambitious mod resurfaces to inform me that Blighttown, source of my nightmares, was cobbled together with '10 bits of wood'
The creator of the Elden Ring Seamless co-op mod is now infusing unlimited multiplayer into Dark Souls 3
dinossindgeil celebrates a hard-earned victory over seven consecutive souls games without a single hit, at level 1.
Streamer achieves git gud godhood by beating all mainline Souls games at level 1, back to back, without getting hit—then explodes into tears of relief
Double headed wizard man holding arms up looking sad
A tabletop RPG designer made a game about the way FromSoft NPCs say cryptic stuff and go 'heh heh heh' all the time, and the result is a love letter to the 'grubby little weirdos'
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 characters with their bodies replaced by skeletons, thanks to the KCD2 Skeleton mod.
Here's that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that turns everyone into skeletons you asked for
elden ring butt stomp
Soulsborne fans tackle the ultimate boss of private healthcare, paying off beloved community figure's huge bill within hours while collectively urging: 'Don't you dare go hollow'
Latest in Games
Blue Protocol players dancing minutes before the game closes forever
What will we do at the end of the world? If MMOs are any indication: mostly what we already do, plus a lot of dancing
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event