Tony Hawks American Sk8Land

Tony Hawks American Sk8Land Description

Much has been made of Activision and Neversoft's recent release of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. You've doubtless experienced the marketing campaign on the goggle box yourselves, and are well aware of the game's unique selling point: a large, seamless world to explore, skate through and grind on, and not a loading screen in sight. Such technology, achieved by streaming textures from the disc, is hardly anything new, but it's still true that the Tony Hawk series has come a long way since the early PlayStation days. For many fans, perhaps too long a way, with missions and collecting things sometimes more the focus than going for that enormous, record-breaking trick combo. It's just as well then, that some machines are around with similar capabilities to the original PlayStation. We refer, of course, to the wonderfully versatile Nintendo DS. Vicarious Visions, a developer, has long been involved with publisher Activision, often responsible for conversions to handheld of Tony Hawk games by developers Neversoft. But they've really gone to town with the new Tony hawk game, the first of its kind to appear on the Nintendo DS. Gone is the isometric mockery of the grown up version that has graced the screen of the GBA for the past few years. Vicarious Visions have judged the DS worthy of holding its own in the skateboard game arena. The first thing you'll notice is true 3D graphics. They look great, and the cell-shaded style that's been adopted to save on processing power still gives the game a great look, while also allowing it to run at the holy grail speed of 60 frames per second. Fans of THPS 1-4 will appreciate the game's structure, with achieving high scores and collecting letters the order of the day, against the backdrop of an amusing comic strip style storyline. Neither are the manifold Wi-Fi abilities of the DS ignored. There's full online play (this is the first DS game after Mario Kart to take advantage of the feature) and some nice ideas besides. You can use the built in DS microphone to record a noise that will play every time you bust a particularly sick trick, and you can use the stylus to create your very own tag to use in the Graffiti mode. The DS has so many attractive features that developers can't help taking advantage. Vicarious Visions have just joined that list.

Wireless Multiplayer - Two players can go head-to-head via a wireless connection and battle through several modes: Trick Attack, Score Challenge, Combo Mambo, The Price is Wrong, Horse and more.

WiFi - Fans create a handheld Hawk community where they can skate head-to-head against other DS players online, post and download high scores and statistics, as well as replay "ghosts," which teach gamers new skate runs, combos and other moves done by others in the WiFi Hawk community. Players can also play against the "ghosts."

Voice In-Game - Players can record voices that replay in the game when players bail, perform a special trick, or clear a gap.

Map Screen - Detailed top screen displays the main gameplay, while the bottom screen displays information such as a level map with collectable locations, dialogue, tips and hints.

Graphical Editors for "Create-A" modes - Draw with the DS stylus to customize various game elements (deck art, graffiti tag). The bottom screen provides a canvas and color palette, while the top screen shows the finished decal (rotating deck, logo).

Trick Slots - Perform special moves using the touch screen. During gameplay the touch screen presents "trick slots," which slides in or out depending on whether the skater's special meter is full. Special tricks may be executed when one of the slots is touched. Players can customize their "trick slots" by assigning tricks from a list available via the skate shop.

Freak Out! (Tantrum Mini-game) - Players can recover lost combo scores when they bail and win a dramatic speed boost by touching and stopping three pulsing columns as close to the top of the column as possible. The columns will appear on the bottom screen when a gamer bails or the game can be initiated by bringing the skater to a complete stop.

Create-A-Park - Players earn money through story mode and buy new equipment for their custom skate park. More than 1000 different skate park designs are possible using the intuitive touch screen based create-a-park editor.

Classic Mode - Compete against a timer to clear as many objectives as possible in two minutes