Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Hands-On Update

Activision's Tony Hawk series has been doing some evolving over the last few years as it has attempted to stay fresh and interesting. The latest iteration of the series is making a radical departure from the tried-and-true formula. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is a deliberate divergence from the franchise's recent free-roaming skate action that revolves around downhill skating. We had the chance to check out the game recently at Northern California-based developer Toys For Bob--who is hard at work developing the game for Nintendo's Wii console--to see just how it's shaping up.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam aims to marry the core elements that have made the Tony Hawk series popular for so many years with a traditional racing experience. On top of that, the game is also attempting to make smart use of the Wii's controller to ensure that an intuitive control experience makes the game accessible to players of all skill levels. Despite these rather daunting goals, Toys For Bob appears to be managing pretty well if the version of the game we played is any indication.

The work-in-progress version let us try out a variety of different events set in San Francisco and Edinburgh, just two of the eight locales from around the globe where the races will take place. Each locale will be split up into different areas to accommodate the various event types. You'll open up new areas by clearing events and earning points based on medals that you'll be awarded at the end of each race. The points will go toward raising your rating and allowing you to go to new areas.

The trick system has been smartly folded into the racing mechanic almost completely intact. However, given the emphasis on speed, lip tricks have been left out. Tricks will fill your boost meter, which, when maxed, let you get a burst of speed. You'll also be able to perform special air tricks. If fair-play mechanics like that don't float your boat, then you can knock around your competitors with punches or kicks for that extra edge.

The actual events vary, although they do all include racing. We were able to try straightforward races that require you to come in first place and slalom races that require you to go through specific points. In addition, we tried our hand at trick races and special races that required us to knock down pedestrians or debris in order to reach a set score.

The levels feature a fairly dense design, in spite of their lengthwise layout, to accommodate shortcuts and hidden areas for you to discover. You'll find plenty of nooks and crannies to explore and trick off of. San Francisco and Edinburgh obviously feature unique regional elements, such as the cable cars and large hills in San Francisco, and the castle in Edinburgh. As we mentioned, each specific locale will feature different areas within it to support the various races, which kept things visually interesting in our time with the game.

Control in Downhill Jam makes good use of the Wii controller, although you'll have to get used to how the various buttons work and to holding it horizontally. Once you get used to the setup, which shouldn't be too hard once you go through the tutorial, you'll find that Downhill Jam has a good feel to it. How long it takes for everything to become intuitive will vary on the player.

The visuals in Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam are clean, with a respectable amount of detail. For those keeping score, the graphics are certainly an improvement over what you'd see on the GameCube, although they're a subtle testament to the Wii's graphics power. The environments are large and contain a good amount of activity from vehicles and pedestrians. We saw a decent number of different special effects used for speed bursts and point modifiers that added some flash, which was a good complement to the action. The game also moves along at a smooth and generally stable frame rate with a good sense of speed.

The audio was still coming together in the version we saw, but the important elements were in place and sounded good. At the start of a race, we were treated to some chat from Tony, who offered thoughts on the upcoming competition. In addition, there was a good deal of chatter during a race. The music tracks we heard were well in line with the franchise's style. The ambient noise depended on the level we were on, but it seemed to be coming along fine.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam will, as with most Wii games, likely be closely scrutinized for its content and control when it ships later this year. From what we've seen, the game should offer a solid amount of content that's fun to play. The catch will of course be how long the appeal and novelty of the control mechanic will last over a long period of time. We're anxious to log in some more time with the game to see just how it holds up. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is currently slated to ship this fall for the Nintendo Wii. Look for more on the game in the coming months.