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E3 06: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Hands-On

Tony Hawk is going Wii all over the place in this high-speed racing game.

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LOS ANGELES--Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is a break from the normal Tony Hawk game. Rather than giving you an open world and strict skating-based goals, this Toys For Bob-developed Nintendo Wii game is really more of a racing game, almost of a mascot variety, that combines Tony Hawk-style skate tricks and a fast-paced downhill racing game with shortcuts, combat, and more.

Downhill Jam lets you pick from Tony Hawk as well as eight original skaters. There's also a create-a-skater system. Each skater has different stats in multiple categories at the start of the game, and you'll get better over time. The game puts you into a variety of downhill events with different goals. The most basic event is a race, where you simply have to make your way to the bottom of the hill as quickly as possible, taking advantage of tricky shortcuts and/or doing tricks to earn speed boosts.

You play the game by holding the Wii remote sideways and putting both hands on it. The B trigger on the bottom is used for grab tricks. The 1 button is used to grind, execute flip tricks, and punch, and the 2 button is used to jump. As you earn turbo for doing tricks, you can get a turbo boost going by quickly shaking the controller. The D pad is used in conjunction with the trick buttons to select which tricks you'll do. We kept trying to use the D pad to steer, but not doing so seems like something you'll quickly get used to. Beyond the basic races, there are slalom events that give you more time for clearing gates and a score attack event that has you competing for the highest trick score. Three different downhill tracks were shown: Machu Picchu, San Francisco, and Rio de Janeiro. Each level has its own look, but the whole game maintains an exaggerated art style that complements what appears to be a pretty good sense of speed.

On top of the single-player racing, you'll be able to play multiplayer, though there hasn't been any word about whether it will be splitscreen, online, or both. In addition to coming to the Wii, this game is coming to the DS and Game Boy Advance. The DS version will have online support.

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