Defunct Games vs. Tony Hawk

Released at the same time as Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, this similarly titled Nintendo DS game manages to be a much stronger entry in the series. I won't kid you, I absolutely loathe American Wasteland. In fact, I hate it more now than I did at the time. When I first reviewed it I said it was simply a disappointing game, but now I feel that it's an insulting slap in the faces of the Tony Hawk fans. Thankfully American Sk8land isn't as terrible as American Wasteland. In fact, I would go as far as to say that American Sk8land is a good game, it has a stupid name, but it's still a good game. It offers good, old-fashioned Tony Hawk gameplay, great level designs, online scoreboards and much, much more. The only real knock I have against the game is its ease. I'm not entirely sure why, but Activision decided to make their first Nintendo DS-based Tony Hawk game extremely easy. Perhaps it's to keep it connected to the equally easy American Wasteland. The only reason this game isn't scoring higher is because there's a far better Nintendo DS sequel on the market, one with better level designs, better multiplayer modes and a more complete story. I'm not going to spoil the surprise now, but needless to say it's not Tony Hawk's Motion.

A year after the American Wasteland debacle, Neversoft gave another company (Toys for Bob) a chance to make a spin-off. The good news is that this Wii launch title is nowhere near as bad as 2005's American Wasteland. Unfortunately it's not good enough to recommend. Instead of being a traditional Tony Hawk game (where you skate wherever you want, pull off cool tricks and complete interesting tasks), Downhill Jam is a racing game that resembles EA's popular SSX franchise. Why do this as opposed to making a traditional Tony Hawk game (or just porting a stripped down version of Project 8)? Sadly it's because Activision felt they needed to shoe-horn the gimmicky motion controls into the Tony Hawk franchise. While the motion controls are moderately successful, the problem is that this game never feels like a real Tony Hawk game. Sure it's a spin-off, but most of the joy and excitement of the series has been stripped out of this painfully generic racing game. Worst of all, after playing through four different SSX games, this Tony Hawk racing game felt like a major step backwards. The idea of a snowless SSX-style game is a good one (see: Downhill Domination), but Tony Hawk is not the right series for that mash-up. A year later Activision would port the game to the PlayStation 2, only instead of using a motion control you just used the traditional analog sticks. This did not improve the series in any way, which may explain why we haven't seen a Downhill Jam 2.

Tony Hawk's Project 8 is arguably the last good console game featuring the Tony Hawk name. While not perfect, Project 8 does manage to give the franchise a brand new look, offers a wide-open world that is both interesting and masterfully constructed, and adds a couple of new tricks that are actually worth pulling off. Critics charge that the franchise hasn't changed enough, but if all you're looking for is a culmination of everything that was good about past Tony Hawk games, then you can't go wrong with Project 8. Best of all, Project 8 managed to do the one thing that American Wasteland couldn't. It created a fully realized world where you could go anywhere and see anything without waiting for some loading screen to go away. This meant that you could create a huge combo that goes from one side of the world to the other, all while racking up huge scores. On top of the great graphics, sound and level designs, the game also has a strong online multiplayer mode. While this is hardly the first game to offer online multiplayer, they managed to add enough new modes to keep both hardcore and casual players interested for months. Some of the new additions don't add much to the game (I'm not a big fan of the "Nail a Trick" ridiculousness), but you can ignore them and still have a great time playing through this fantastic Tony Hawk sequel.

In 2007 Tony Hawk had a lot to prove, so there was a lot of pressure on this appropriately titled 9th installment. For the first time since the franchise's launch, there was a real competitor vying for the skateboarding gold medal. That game was Electronic Arts' Skate, a realistic skateboarding simulator that was fresh and exciting. Unfortunately by comparison the Tony Hawk games felt old and stale, often settling on the same types of levels, the same moves and the same tired tasks. Proving Ground could have been a great game, but instead of focusing on making one or two things better, Neversoft decided to split the game up into three completely different sections. For example, in one part of the game you would be laying down everyday objects for you to trick on and over, while in another part of the game the judges would be testing your ability to land extremely complex "nail the trick" moves. The problem is that none of these disparate sections felt complete, they just sort of existed for one reason or another. Couple this with the fact that the game's location (which involved three East Coast cities) was ugly and depressing. Baltimore may be a beautiful city, but you would never know it by playing this game. In a lot of ways this felt like a step backwards, especially when compared to EA's Skate. Apparently Activision agreed, because the company took the unprecedented move of skipping a 2008 model to focus on rebooting the aging franchise. Will they be able to add life back to the series? I guess we'll find out later on this year.

Just because it has the same name does not mean that this Nintendo DS game is the same. Tony Hawk's Proving Ground may have been a major disappointment on the consoles, but that's definitely not the case with this fantastic Nintendo DS game. Although the game takes place in the same locations as its console brother, the handheld versions of Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia end up feeling like good, old fashioned traditional Tony Hawk levels. Better yet, they aren't as dark and depressing as they were on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Instead of focusing on three different gameplay styles, this DS game offers traditional tasks that allow you to play the game like you would any other Tony Hawk game. Couple that with a compelling story, plenty of fun mission objectives and cool level designs, and you have the best Tony Hawk game on Nintendo's dual screened handheld system. If you can get over the connection to the disappointing console game you will find that this is a portable game worth owning.

When Activision says that they took the year off to regroup, what they really mean is that they postponed the release of the console sequel. Without any fanfare or hype, Activision unleashed a very bizarre (and not very good) Nintendo DS game called Tony Hawk's Motion. Never heard of it? Don't feel bad, it wasn't one of those games that made a big slash. In an effort to change up the Tony Hawk gameplay, Activision decided to offer a Nintendo DS peripheral that turned it into a big motion control. That means that instead of using your D-pad to move your character, you turn and twist your Nintendo DS, giving you a Wii-like sensation. At least, that was the hope. The problem is that this gameplay technique is broken beyond belief. What's more, the game is just a little too different from the standard Tony Hawk series. I'm all for change, but Motion feels like they took everything that was good about the Tony Hawk games and replaced it with gimmicks that don't work and ultimately bring the game to a crashing halt. When something doesn't work it's customary to suggest that maybe the developer didn't have enough time to fully realize their visions, but I'm not so sure that's the case with Tony Hawk's Motion. I have a hunch that the idea started bad and was executed perfectly. Either way, Tony Hawk's Motion is a terrible DS game that is not worth your time or money. This is also a terrible way to end our look back at the last ten years of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. One can only hope that the next game (known as Tony Hawk's Adrenaline for the time being) is a vast improvement over both this and Project 8. I have my fingers crossed.