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Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam

Posted January 18th 2007 by Daniel Sousa.

It has been almost a decade since the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and it seems publishers haven't lost faith in the franchise. Each iteration has introduced a major new skateboarding ability along with bigger, better levels and graphics. Is the series still worthy? I'm embarrassed to admit I was one of the young impressionable teenagers that was captivated by the world of skateboarding depicted in the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater videogame, but the game was loved by non skateboarder converts too.

The Wii's weird controller design inspired developer Toys for Bob to create the first major deviation in the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise – Downhill Jam, a game based on downhill skateboarding with a unrealistic twist. The first couple of Tony Hawk games gave you a set of goals to choose from each level and let you go at it. The following titles featured open worlds littered with goals and appropriately cheesy story lines. Downhill Jam takes away the open worlds but introduces a whole new level of play – downhill racing.

So why is it still a Tony Hawk game? Apart from the obvious fact that Tony Hawk leads the storyline and all gameplay happens on a skateboard, the gameplay the series is loved for has not disappeared. The player must be flipping, grabbing, grinding, and manualing at all times, this time to gain indispensable boost power. The closest game to Downhill Jam would be SSX, a trick-focused snowboarding game. Racking up points through huge combos is elementary in Downhill Jam, so don't expect to win with slick turning skills and a couple grinds here and there. The combination of racing down a slope with tight turns and jumps and the constant concern with stringing combos together adds up to an intense and fun experience. The racing is obviously not as deep as something like Gran Turismo (brake at the last second, start on the outside of the turn and turn in while moderately accelerating), but having to think about not crashing into the wall and watching for shortcuts is a welcome addition to the classic combo-only gameplay.

The story pits the player as a new skater in Tony Hawk's new downhill skating team, touring the world to build a team of fictional, cheesy characters by beating them in their own favorite downhill spots. The presentation is good for a DS game, with decent voice acting (including from the birdman himself, Tony Hawk) in smoothly animated 2D cut scenes. The graphics are stylish and fairly impressive; above average DS 3D in environments 4x the size of those in Sk8land, running with mostly smooth frame rates. The ability to customize every aspect of your skater (including making your own textures for clothes and boards) is a very welcome option.

The average gamer should be able to power through the game at normal difficulty pretty easily, but the hard mode provides more of a challenge. The controls are logical and even though I'm a little thickheaded when it comes to learning control schemes, the game felt natural to me after the helpful tutorial mode and a couple of races. Even though the intensity and speed of the game makes it an exciting experience, it becomes boring before one would expect because goals do not vary greatly and the total of six tracks is a little underwhelming. While progressing through the story line, the player is presented with the same goals over and over, and even then the goals do not force the player to stray very far from the main concept of doing combos and racing. I would have enjoyed some goals based on the Wii version's "destruction" and "pedestrian knockdown" modes.

Downhill Jam DS is obviously based on the Wii version, but it isn't a measly port. As expected, the DS' hardware differences mean the graphics and sound aren't as impressive, but the DS version isn't all shortcomings. I was surprised to not hear any rap in the licensed soundtrack, but the punk rock / metal soundtrack is an appropriate choice for a fast paced skateboarding game. I later learned the Wii version includes a satisfying selection of new and classic rap, but more than half of the songs were excluded during the transition due to DS card capacity limitations. While the Wii version has motion sensing controls which fit the racing genre well, it suffers from a lack of buttons that slightly reduce gameplay complexity. Trick maneuvers such as ollies and grabs are both mapped to a single button, while grinds and flips are mapped to another. The most important link for ground-based combos, the manual ability, is disabled in the Wii version yet almost indispensable here.

The most unique aspect of THDJ DS is, arguably, its online mode. I appreciate that Nintendo has moderately supported online play for its recent handheld, but I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed the experience. Considering the limitations Nintendo DS' online system presents, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam's online mode is excellent, and probably one of the best so far on the DS. Not only are you allowed to race with three other people online in almost every mode offered in single player, but Vicarious Visions offers downloadable goals, a passable voice chat ability, and deep statistic tracking through a dedicated website. I was surprised to see my laughably bad custom textures uploaded to the website along with full details regarding my progression in the story mode. THDJ is recommended for those who appreciate online abilities in DS games.

Steady Beat - More like a downhill jamboree! (Fun.)

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam DS is a smooth ride overall, but unless you take it online, a slightly short one. Downhill Jam excels because it adds the fast and fun element of racing to the self sufficient gameplay of old. It's different enough from American Sk8land to warrant a purchase if you enjoy the "extreme sports" genre, which is impressive in its own right. Almost everything is solid about this game except for the lack of variety in goals, which will only be a significant drawback to some. Thankfully, the online mode is a pretty welcoming experience and will provide a couple more hours of fun to the game if you enjoy this genre.

Posted in: Reviews