Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

The Tony Hawk series has been around since 1999, starting off with Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the Playstation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color.  Since then it has become the most popular extreme sports series.  Jimmy Kimmel recently told Tony Hawk, "Your athletic ability has enabled millions of teenage Americans to sit on their couch and eat Doritos, and I think that is a wonderful thing."

Now we are upon the eighth game in the series.  While the game strayed a bit from its skating roots by going towards a more story-based game, it looks like Tony Hawk has returned home.  The Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2, and PSP are getting Tony Hawk’s Project 8.  The Nintendo DS, GBA, and Wii are heading in a different direction with Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam.

The graphics in THDJ are cel-shaded.  Anyone who has ever played Jet Grind Radio or Jet Set Radio Future will reminisce about them after seeing the graphics in THDJ.  The style works well since the character models and the backgrounds do look a bit blocky.  While this is the Nintendo DS, a little more rounding of the graphics would have been nice.

The characters in THDJ only have a slight texture to them.  You can see a little bit of texture in the faces and clothing.  The walls and ramps show enough to give the impression that they aren’t flat.  Still, there are times when everything feels flat.  Moving over grass areas with a flower pattern looks more like bad curtains than a lawn.

The game really shines in the animations of the characters.  If you have ever seen a Tony Hawk game you know the animations have always been fluid and THDJ is no different.  The skaters perform their tricks, twisting in the air and twirling their board, with silky smooth movement.  When using the turbo boost, you get a bit of an effect similar to when the Millennium Falcon goes into lightspeed to simulate moving faster.

The cutscenes are hand-drawn and could be compared to a slide show.  Most of the time there is little to no movement.  The characters are drawn well and the drawing of Tony Hawk himself looks like an accurate caricature.  It would have been nice to see more movement, but considering this is on the Nintendo DS they’ve done a good job with the resources available.

The music of Tony Hawk has always been a mix of rap, punk, and metal.  THDJ is no different.  THDJ features fifteen songs.  Even though most of these bands are probably unknown to most, they fit in line with other Tony Hawk games.  While you probably won’t be humming any of the songs once you finish playing the game, they do fit the attitude of the game.  The sound quality is surprisingly good coming from the Nintendo DS.

The sounds of a skateboard grinding don’t change so if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.  That’s the approach taken with THDJ.  Grinding your board or landing on the pavement sounds just like you’d expect it to.  You’ll get some dings and other feedback when you perform tricks.  Record scratches indicate a sloppy landing.

The skaters in the game each have their own individual voices.  Tony Hawk has several lines throughout the game especially during the cutscenes.  Other skaters also talk during the cutscenes.  They don’t have as many lines as Tony Hawk, but you won’t hear the same thing over and over again.  Unfortunately, you won’t hear much trash talking during the racing.

Controls are handled similarly to other Tony Hawk games.  The D-pad controls movement of your skater.  Holding down B crouches while releasing B jumps.  Pressing A in combination with the D-pad while jumping performs grab tricks.  Flip tricks are done by pressing Y in combination with the D-pad.  Hitting X grinds along rails.  Manuals, useful for linking tricks, are done by going up then down, or down then up, quickly on the D-pad.  In specific situations, these buttons allow you to perform wallrides and other tricks depending on the skater.

There are two big issues with the controls. First, the D-pad is not as accurate as an analog stick.  Because of this, keeping balance on grinds and manuals without bailing is difficult.  Trying to land without a sloppy is difficult as well.

Second, if you want to perform special tricks, trick Hawk skulls show up on the bottom touch screen.  Occasionally these wouldn’t register as quickly as they should have.  This causes a lot of thumbprints to show up on the bottom touchscreen.  This can be distracting if you like to keep your system clean.  Playing the game with your stylus requires dexterity that most people won’t even attempt.

THDJ includes five different modes.  The World Tour is the story mode of the game.  It features you competing in different challenges around the world on a tour with Tony Hawk.  As you earn medals you gain points to upgrade your stats.  Jam session has you skate through the course.  During this course you attempt to complete different challenges.  You can choose which challenges you wish to complete in that time such as earning a high score, knocking over garbage cans, getting a specific amount of hang time, and getting sick combos.  In the Quick Race, you race against one to three challengers to get to the end of the course.  Free Skate lets you go through a course and explore however you want.  Since there isn't a specific goal this can help you discover shortcuts, big air jumps, and other gaps.  Finally, there are Lessons that let you learn the basic controls to perform tricks.

In the World Tour, you create a character and start out as a part of Tony Hawk’s troupe that competes against his nemesis Antonio Segul, a man that Tony Hawk hasn’t seen since the 80’s and who hasn’t updated his wardrobe since then.  You compete against his team in a series of challenges.

With the name Downhill Jam, you might think that it’s all about getting down the hill in the fastest time.  This might be true of some challenges, but other challenges can have other objectives.  One challenge might have you complete a certain number of tricks specified by the screen, and another challenge might have you perform big air tricks in front of the camera.  Another challenge could have you perform tricks with style and not landing sloppy or bailing.  These are particularly brutal.  Doing tricks slows you down, but it gains you turbo to increase your speed down the hill.  There is a balance to when to make tricks and when to use the boost.  Finding that balance between tricks and boost is a challenge.

There are six locations and each one has nine challenges.  Once you complete three of the challenges you are able to open a Medal Challenge.  After you complete two of these Medal Challenges then a new member joins your crew.  When the member joins your crew a new location becomes available.

As you complete challenges you earn points to increase your stats.  There are fours stats for each character: Air, Speed, Trick, and Balance.  Your character starts out with weak stats which makes completing challenges difficult.  You can change to Tony Hawk or the other members of the crew you have unlocked.  Their stats are much higher than your initial character.  Because of this, the game can be a real challenge in the beginning.

In the races, the AI seems to have a bit of a rubber-band mentality.  It’s especially noticeable when you are in the lead of a race.  Your opponents seem to catch up easily.  However, if you are behind, getting ahead without some type of shortcut is near impossible.

The gameplay of THDJ feels like a mishmash of different challenges.  Because you travel down the locations so quickly, you don’t feel like you get to know the levels as well as you should because you have mere seconds with each area.  While the racing is fun and some of the challenges are fun, other challenges are difficult and it feels like there is a lack of direction in how the developers wanted to make this game.

The game features six locations in the World Tour.  Each of those has several challenges.  Those challenges focus on different parts of the course, so each one does feel a little different, even if the artwork has similar style throughout the location.  Still, the lack of the number of locations is disappointing.  The Jam Sessions are reminiscent of the Tony Hawk games of old except you are going downhill the entire time.  Completing these challenges is not as difficult as the World Tour.  The Quick Races are nice diversions that are perfect for short gaming sessions.

The online portion of the game features four-player modes locally and through the Internet.  These modes range from simple races to team-based games.  If you have a few friends with the game, this portion of the game can be very satisfying.  It even includes voice chat for the game.

I was expecting something like Tony Hawk SSX from Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam.  THDJ lacks the focus of the SSX series and feels less satisfying overall.  The number of different challenges actually detracts from the gameplay instead of enhancing it.  THDJ isn’t a bad game, but if you are expecting something similar to the other Tony Hawk games you might find yourself disappointed.

Gaming Trend Score

76

1. Graphics: 82
2. Audio: 86
3. Controls: 68
4. Gameplay: 74
5. Value/Replay: 72
6. OVERALL:76