A portable Tony Hawk that plays very well...and it's online? Alright!!
Tony Hawk's American Sk8land is the first skateboarding game for the Nintendo DS. And if that weren't impressive enough, this game makes use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection! Yes, it's hard to believe that a skateboarding game can be online, but it makes great use of it. Owners agree that THAS's online modes are much, much better that Mario Kart DS's online mode.
The game begins with you winning an Amateur skateboarding contest. Yes, the first cutscene shows you celebrating. It's none other than Tony Hawk who's impressed with you, and he takes you along to Hollywood! There, you meet Mindy, who is your other best friend in the game. You must show off your skills with the skating locals there, earning money. You later find out that it's up to you, Mindy, and Tony Hawk to collect enough money to put in new pieces to rebuild an old skatepark, named American Sk8land. Sounds good? Good!
Screenshots do this game no justice. Screenshots of this game make the game look like crap. That is certainly not true. You really have to see the game in action, because the graphics are brilliant. Vicarious Visions pushed themselves to the limit making top-quality cel-shaded graphics, and my, do they look great! Unfortunately, your character and all of the playable pro skaters are the only people that have any detail in them. The rest of the characters look just like blocks. There's something that makes up for that, though -- the cutscenes. It's like watching a live comic book about the adventures of the three of you, and they're AWESOME! But unrealistic. You won't ever see a red pimped-out bus do a boardslide along the edge of a bridge.
Favorite dings, grinding sounds, and bail grunts are back, and sound just as good as ever. This game features over 30 minutes of punk-rock music, but nearly everybody hates the song "I Like Dirt". Thank goodness for the option to select songs that you like to hear. If this wasn't good enough, you can make your own custom sounds for special moves and bails! I tried it, and they sound very clear. Think of it as a premonition to voice chat, featured in the upcoming Metroid Prime Hunters. Also, let me go back to the cutscenes again -- Tony Hawk himself lends his voice for the cutscenes, and even they sound great! Mindy's voice, though, not so much.
Ah...this game goes back to the basics of Tony Hawk gameplay. The freedom to skate (nearly) forever, but even if it was just skating, it would be great. You cannot get off of your board in this game. You can completely stop to either spray some graffiti or go into a Freak Out, but that's the best you can do. While many TH fans frown upon this decision, old-school TH fans love this. You get to do so many different tasks in the game's Story Mode to collect money, you even get to impress a number of pros, and compete in a pro contest! And then there's Classic Mode, where it goes back to the basic basics - you pick a level, and it starts a two-minute run, and you try to complete a number of old-school objectives, such as getting a high score, finding the secret tape, etc. Then there's Free Skate, where you can just tear it up anywhere. Sadly there's no person anywhere in any level, so it feels really lonely.
Tony Hawk games are known for their customization. This game's customization is very limited, but there's still customization. There's like ten different head pieces, ten different torso pieces, and ten different leg pieces to customize your character. Create-A-Trick is completely gone; Create-A-Park was, I guess, replaced with the Warehouse level, where you can buy a variety of different pieces in one fixed area. But now for the good stuff: since the DS has a touch screen, you can completely draw your board deck and graffiti! And you can save two different board designs and two different graffiti marks! The customization here is simply astronomical! But I digress...there's sadly a glitch in the drawing tool, which draws a diagonal line at random when using the touch screen. Thank goodness for the Undo button...
Now for the online goodness. Here, you can Automatch or Friend Search -- search for random people to skate with, or skate with a friend, respectively. You both start out in the Vans Skatepark level, but either of you can request to each other what level to go to and what game mode to play in - such as Free Skate, Trick Attack, et cetera. The fun's only beginning. You can DOWNLOAD completely new goals each month, and play them as often as you want (while connected to the WiFi connection)! There's usually three new goals in a level, providing something slightly more challenging than the Story Mode goals. I remember having to perform an Anticasper over a distance to complete a goal. Easier said than done. Provided that you're a registered member of american-sk8land.com, and you've linked your DS account and online account, you can upload your deck and graffiti designs, and you can even download other people's work, and maybe they'll download YOUR work! Have you ever gotten a superhigh score in any level of Classic Mode? You're free to upload your scores and times to the website as well, and compare yourself to the rest of the world!