Review
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Review (DS)
With the launch of ‘Project 8’ on consoles this winter season, the Tony Hawk franchise is recovering some of the ground it lost with the ‘Jackass’ antics filled ‘Underground’ games, which were messy, unfocused affairs trying to be everything at once, and ended up being nothing special. Instead of porting Project 8 to the DS, Vicarious Visions have instead opted to port the forthcoming Nintendo Wii release; Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, which uses Nintendo’s unique controller to ‘be’ the skateboard. How will that translate to the DS, with its touchscreen and dual screen features?
My first hour of this game was one of sheer horror and disgust. “What on earth were they thinking?” was the first thing on my mind – transforming the tried and tested Tony Hawk gameplay into a downhill racing game. Yes, that is RACING on SKATEBOARDS. Fairly impractical, for starters, and it limits the freeroaming hugeness of the previous incarnations (including the wonderful American Wasteland, released last year) to a series of steep slopes full of the usual ramps and rails. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam? Tony Hawk’s Downhill SHAM, more like.
Skip forward a few hours. I’ve unlocked four of the levels, gained a load of stat points, customized my skater, failed to eat this evening and have had to put my DS onto the charger. Sure, it may not be instantly recognizable, but the old Hawk gameplay is still strong with this one. The controls are the same as you’d expect – anyone who has played any Tony Hawk game in the past will be able to pick this up instantly – and the overall feel of the game is very much what you would expect, but unfortunately, the downhill setting knocks the wheels off the deck at many moments throughout the game.
If Project 8 is a more serious take on Skateboarding, then Downhill Jam is the Saturday morning cartoon companion. There is a very thin plot tying the stages together, featuring an animated Hawk traveling around the world winning downhill race competitions and building up a team of bizarre characters. No more are the Margera’s, Lasek’s and the other licensed skaters, replaced with some cartoon stereotypes of the various countries you travel to. They also, aren’t very good (the worst of which being the ‘Scottish’ skater, who not only sports an Irish accent, also wears a horned Viking helmet).
The bulk of the game is the World Tour mode. You get nine selectable goals each stage and must complete them, followed by some medal events to move to the next location, backed by the aforementioned dodgy narrative. These vary from simply winning a race or following a difficult line over a series of obstacles, to sillier objectives such as knocking over some bins, with each goal usually taking place within a tight time limit and/or a certain section of the course, getting around the otherwise one directional nature of the levels.
Another mode is the Jam Session, which is a throwback to the earlier installments of the Hawk series. You start at the very top of each stage, and have a set amount of time, or until you reach the finish line – whichever comes first – to achieve certain goals, with the pro scores, letter challenges and the classic ‘hidden tapes’ all featuring at some point. Finish a few of the goals to unlock the next course – rinse and repeat until finished. Due to the very downhill nature of all the levels, the exploration element that was present in the last few games is now seriously crippled. You are going one direction, and all the hidden items will be there at some point during your descent. Even the most inexperienced Tony Hawk player will find this mode easy, even on the harder difficulties. To a longtime fan of the series, the ease of this mode is almost insulting.
In fact, the overall difficulty of the game is incredibly easy. Even making those huge, near million point combos – previously the mark of the expert player – has been made achievable by anyone after an hour or so. This is mainly to do with the three second timer that appears after you have done a trick and is the window you have to begin another one before the combo breaks down. It replaces the need to manual between tricks like in the previous games, and would actually be most welcome if the cascading nature of the game meant that actually performing a manual was any harder than before.
It isn’t, and all this now does is make the games larger scores much, much more simple to attain.
You also have the obligatory free skate mode, to give you a chance to learn the stages and practice your lines, and a quick race mode, which allows you to jump straight into, surprise surprise, a race, quickly.
The races are the games big flaw. Because of their appearance, the game has taken a more linear approach to the levels, but if the races were good, then surely that would be forgivable? Unfortunately, the race modes and missions are for the most part, immensely dull and full of AI cheating. Try as you might, skate the best line you can skate and boost until you have no more boost – the computer will always be right behind you. Rubberbanding is a pretty evil artificial difficulty method anyway, but when you have entire races simply coming down to whoever has the most boost power left when they hit the final straight, it completely robs the mode of any challenge whatsoever.
It isn’t all doom and gloom though, as Downhill Jam features one of the most complete online experiences on the DS. The race mode is made much, much better once the human element is thrown into the mix, allowing for some genuinely tight races, rather than a cheating computer causing frustration. You can challenge players around the world to time attacks, score attacks and more, using your custom character and moveset, as well as uploading your best scores and runs to the high score list. It is a very solid community that is being built around the game, with competition winners announced on the notice board when you log in, as well as other community news. There are even a few new goals to be downloaded, with a few more on the way. With voice chat is supported when playing with players on your friends list, sharing custom decks to beating your mates - it has it all.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is a decent skating game with a unique idea and ambition – unfortunately, the unique idea is very much at odds with what has came before it and doesn’t actually make the series any more enjoyable and in places, quite the opposite is true. Saying that, it is still a solid title from the Hawk stable and makes one wonder that with the control scheme supposedly in place for the Wii version, it could be a formula improved on for future titles.
Top Game Moment: Other than the always welcome appearance of Motorhead on the soundtrack, racking up a gigantic combo and landing it perfectly is a feeling hard to beat.
 |
 |
|
| Big Air in San Francisco | Busting some moves |
My first hour of this game was one of sheer horror and disgust. “What on earth were they thinking?” was the first thing on my mind – transforming the tried and tested Tony Hawk gameplay into a downhill racing game. Yes, that is RACING on SKATEBOARDS. Fairly impractical, for starters, and it limits the freeroaming hugeness of the previous incarnations (including the wonderful American Wasteland, released last year) to a series of steep slopes full of the usual ramps and rails. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam? Tony Hawk’s Downhill SHAM, more like.
Skip forward a few hours. I’ve unlocked four of the levels, gained a load of stat points, customized my skater, failed to eat this evening and have had to put my DS onto the charger. Sure, it may not be instantly recognizable, but the old Hawk gameplay is still strong with this one. The controls are the same as you’d expect – anyone who has played any Tony Hawk game in the past will be able to pick this up instantly – and the overall feel of the game is very much what you would expect, but unfortunately, the downhill setting knocks the wheels off the deck at many moments throughout the game.
If Project 8 is a more serious take on Skateboarding, then Downhill Jam is the Saturday morning cartoon companion. There is a very thin plot tying the stages together, featuring an animated Hawk traveling around the world winning downhill race competitions and building up a team of bizarre characters. No more are the Margera’s, Lasek’s and the other licensed skaters, replaced with some cartoon stereotypes of the various countries you travel to. They also, aren’t very good (the worst of which being the ‘Scottish’ skater, who not only sports an Irish accent, also wears a horned Viking helmet).
The bulk of the game is the World Tour mode. You get nine selectable goals each stage and must complete them, followed by some medal events to move to the next location, backed by the aforementioned dodgy narrative. These vary from simply winning a race or following a difficult line over a series of obstacles, to sillier objectives such as knocking over some bins, with each goal usually taking place within a tight time limit and/or a certain section of the course, getting around the otherwise one directional nature of the levels.
 |
 |
|
| An overtly romanticized version of Edinburgh | You can customize your skater - sadly, you can't make them less ugly |
Another mode is the Jam Session, which is a throwback to the earlier installments of the Hawk series. You start at the very top of each stage, and have a set amount of time, or until you reach the finish line – whichever comes first – to achieve certain goals, with the pro scores, letter challenges and the classic ‘hidden tapes’ all featuring at some point. Finish a few of the goals to unlock the next course – rinse and repeat until finished. Due to the very downhill nature of all the levels, the exploration element that was present in the last few games is now seriously crippled. You are going one direction, and all the hidden items will be there at some point during your descent. Even the most inexperienced Tony Hawk player will find this mode easy, even on the harder difficulties. To a longtime fan of the series, the ease of this mode is almost insulting.
In fact, the overall difficulty of the game is incredibly easy. Even making those huge, near million point combos – previously the mark of the expert player – has been made achievable by anyone after an hour or so. This is mainly to do with the three second timer that appears after you have done a trick and is the window you have to begin another one before the combo breaks down. It replaces the need to manual between tricks like in the previous games, and would actually be most welcome if the cascading nature of the game meant that actually performing a manual was any harder than before.
It isn’t, and all this now does is make the games larger scores much, much more simple to attain.
You also have the obligatory free skate mode, to give you a chance to learn the stages and practice your lines, and a quick race mode, which allows you to jump straight into, surprise surprise, a race, quickly.
The races are the games big flaw. Because of their appearance, the game has taken a more linear approach to the levels, but if the races were good, then surely that would be forgivable? Unfortunately, the race modes and missions are for the most part, immensely dull and full of AI cheating. Try as you might, skate the best line you can skate and boost until you have no more boost – the computer will always be right behind you. Rubberbanding is a pretty evil artificial difficulty method anyway, but when you have entire races simply coming down to whoever has the most boost power left when they hit the final straight, it completely robs the mode of any challenge whatsoever.
It isn’t all doom and gloom though, as Downhill Jam features one of the most complete online experiences on the DS. The race mode is made much, much better once the human element is thrown into the mix, allowing for some genuinely tight races, rather than a cheating computer causing frustration. You can challenge players around the world to time attacks, score attacks and more, using your custom character and moveset, as well as uploading your best scores and runs to the high score list. It is a very solid community that is being built around the game, with competition winners announced on the notice board when you log in, as well as other community news. There are even a few new goals to be downloaded, with a few more on the way. With voice chat is supported when playing with players on your friends list, sharing custom decks to beating your mates - it has it all.
 |
 |
|
| Beating your friends in online races is a high point |
Tony regretted not visiting the bathroom before the race |
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is a decent skating game with a unique idea and ambition – unfortunately, the unique idea is very much at odds with what has came before it and doesn’t actually make the series any more enjoyable and in places, quite the opposite is true. Saying that, it is still a solid title from the Hawk stable and makes one wonder that with the control scheme supposedly in place for the Wii version, it could be a formula improved on for future titles.
Top Game Moment: Other than the always welcome appearance of Motorhead on the soundtrack, racking up a gigantic combo and landing it perfectly is a feeling hard to beat.
