Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland Preview

You might think that after six consecutive Tony Hawk releases Neversoft would like a year off, but nope, that’s not happening. The Tony Hawk series will be returning once again this fall with Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. Neversoft is once again mixing things up and squeezing all they can out of the aging, but still excellent Tony Hawk series. After the THUG games you may be wondering just how Neversoft, after 6 six years, can make a Tony Hawk game exciting, well, here’s how.

If you played all the previous Hawk games you’ve probably realized that with every release, the game gets bigger. New moves, flashier graphics, more complex story lines and bigger combos. But the most obvious improvement from game to game has been the growth of the skating environments. Over the years, the Tony Hawk games have evolved from small interior levels to large partial-city landscapes. With Wasteland, this trend continues, only this time Neversoft is taking it to the next level. Wasteland will take place in Los Angeles. Now this might not seem to exciting as past Tony Hawk games have included little bits of NY, Boston, Philadelphia and many other places around the world but this time Neversoft is including the entire city. You’ll be able to skate throughout the entire city without any load times. Complete a level and it’s open from there on in. If you would like to go back, just skate on over, no load times, no warp zones, no nothing. Within the city are amusement parks, skate parks and all sorts of locations to check out of equal or greater size than the Tony Hawk levels we’re used to playing.

The story is similar to THUG, your goal, as a poor amateur skater, is to become a world famous pro which is done through the story mode. The game takes place in the 80′s when skating was just getting going and you’ll move the story mode by completing the usual challenges, missions and the occasional competition. The classic mode from THUG 2 is also back and includes classic Tony Hawk levels with objective based goals.

Graphically the game looks similar to its predecessors. Expect a slight improvement in graphics and animation but same overall look and feel. The game takes place in the 80′s so expect all the associated chessiness. The cartoonish look from the last game will also be returning. Once again the Tony Hawk will have a real soundtrack. The sound track list hasn’t been released yet but expect 80′s tunes.

Every installment of the game brings a long a few new moves. In THPS2 the manual was introduced; in THPS3 it was the revert, and in THPS4, spine transfers. Each move allowed players to string together even longer combos. Wasteland introduces several new abilities to once again help you rack up points. The biggest addition will be the ability to pull off one-footed manuals and grinds. You will also be able to pull off double flips and rolls, a back-flip, and Bert Slides and Bert Rolls.

THUG allowed you take control of several vehicles and that trend is continuing. You can new jump off your board at any time and hop on a BMX bike. Don’t expect the clunky vehicle controls from the last few games, Neversoft is spending a lot of time on the BMX portion of the game making it as intuitive and tight as the skate board controls. This is large part of the new game and one of its biggest features.

While all the other extreme sports series have dropped out of sight, the Tony Hawk games have kept on going. Although many have grown tired of the series, Tony Hawk’s Wasteland should have enough new features to keep veterans of the series happy. Toss in Tony Hawk’s mainstream appeal and the classic skateboarding gameplay from prior years and Wasteland will sure to be another hit in a dying genre. It’ll be here this fall, punctual, as usual.