Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land Review

My first experience with the Tony Hawk video game franchise led me to believe that skateboarding was easy. I ended up bruising my backside several times just by trying an ollie. In a decision probably for the better, I stuck with video games. Considering how many of these skateboarding games exist, there’s no time to go back to the real thing. But such a selection has a way of dulling any excitement over another in a long-winded franchise. Luckily, handheld consoles offer some leeway for these things, which is good. This DS skater brings a lot of new life to the Tony Hawk name.

The first worthy mentionable of Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land is how it pushes the DS’s limitations to new boundaries. Levels feel very large on the DS screen and make no exceptions to keep things bare in order for the game to run smoothly. That isn’t to say the framerate is a problem though. It’s generally reliable minus a negligible dip or two in a multiplayer match. Sk8land is also the first Tony Hawk game to venture into full-fledged cel-shading. Anything more might not have worked so well on the DS, but the effect is neat and very fitting. Objects have jagged outlines and aren’t made of very many polygons, but these are passable shortcomings. Even so, the game is already doing a lot, so it’s hardly an issue.

But even more impressive is this game’s audio. I’d been waiting eagerly for a DS game to use actual voice acting, and Sk8land has proven the possibility. Cutscenes are not just short snippets, either. These sometimes take two or three minutes and feature very clear dialogue between Tony Hawk and a new character, Mindy. Add on top of this licensed music, and it’s amazing all this audio was able to fit onto such a little game card. The selection of more than 12 songs is mostly punk rock, and they cycle through the same order over and over. It can get a little irritating. Barring that redundancy, all of this sounds great with very little obvious compression anywhere. Oh, and you can record your own voice samples for bails and specials. I don’t know how they could make this any better.

The core mechanics of the Tony Hawk gameplay haven’t changed much. Set goals will require you to score a particular high score or combo, find hidden stuff, or grind/jump special parts of the current level. Sk8land’s story plays out as you, Tony Hawk, and Mindy try to earn money to restore an old warehouse skate park. When certain money markers have been met, you can buy one of three pieces for the warehouse to fit into pre-selected areas. Money is earned by riding around the different stages and talking to random people who will pay you to do certain things (like jump a rooftop or deliver a pizza). It’s kind of funny how the people of Hollywood are so willing to fork over $250 for every stunt you do, but Sk8land really hams up the fact that this isn’t serious at all.

However, Story mode is very simple and easy and only serves as a way for you to get used to the game. To compensate for this, a Classic mode is also available. This is a throwback to the Pro Skater days when you had to complete any of ten goals in two minutes or less. Goals are a little more demanding than they were in Story mode and eventually requireoutrageous high scores. It’s nice to have Classic mode there, as it really extends this game’s replay value. However, the story is more entertaining and feels more like part of a real world. Skating around empty streets in Classic mode is almost creepy.

Skating is no problem, though. The DS doesn’t cut any corners simply because its buttons are smaller or whatever else people may have been worried about. Pulling off ridiculously valuable combos is easy even for new DS owners. The only trouble you may come across is getting confused as to which button is which. From playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 on the GameCube too much, I kept mistaking the DS’s X button as the Y button. If it bothers you that much, you can even customize the controls to your liking.