In May, Activision Publishing CEO and president Mike Griffiths commented that this year's installment of Tony Hawk on the Nintendo DS would "utilize new technology not yet seen on the DS." True to his word, Activision confirmed today that Tony Hawk Motion for the Nintendo DS will implement accelerometer technology by way of a motion-detecting add-on.
The motion pack was developed by New York-based Kionix, and will let gamers control their digital skaters through twisting, turning, and tilting gestures. As for the game itself, Tony Hawk Motion is in development at Creat Studios (Coded Arms: Contagion), and will feature more than 20 minigame challenges in globe-spanning locales such as Tokyo, Dubai, Vermont, and the Alps. Activision also notes that, in a first for the franchise, Tony Hawk Motion will include snowboarding events, fronted by pro boarder Todd Richards.
When the $39.99 bundle launches this November, it will also include Creat's Hue Pixel Painter. In the action-puzzle game, players will be tasked with enlivening dreary environments by dowsing out underground paint deposits in a variety of landscapes.
Tony Hawk Motion will be the only installment in the publisher's skateboarding franchise to be released this year. In May, the publisher said it would be sitting the next console installment out a year "to deliver the kind of breakthrough [the Tony Hawk] franchise needs."
Indeed, Tony Hawk Motion may just be the beginning of the series' reinvention. In June, a spate of leaks from market-research firm Intellisponse revealed a number of products in the pipe from Microsoft and Activision, including the avatar-based Xbox Live dashboard overhaul, Lips for the Xbox 360, and Guitar Hero World Tour's neckslide. The leaks also referenced Tony Hawk's Adrenaline, an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC game that uses a Wii Fit balance-board-like peripheral.
