|
It’s time for the new instalment in the Tony Hawk’s series
of Skating games for the NintendoDS, this time in Tony Hawk’s
Downhill Jam. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is another game
brought to
us by Vicarious Visions, the team that also made a big impact with
Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land on the NintendoDS last year,
but less so with their 2005 Xbox conversion of
DOOM 3.
The NintendoDS releases in the Tony Hawk’s series moved-away
from the realistic graphics and opted for the more abstract
Cel-Shaded approach, giving the games a cartoon-esque look. After
the early 2000’s-boom for Cel-Shading, there still remain many
series as to which have been utilising the technique more recently,
such as
Mercury Meltdown, but many titles, however, fail to
use the system to it’s full advantage, where as Tony Hawk’s
American Sk8land made a big hitter. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
is not all Cel-Shaded, only the characters are, but it still looks
good with the contrast between the Cel-Shaded characters and the
traditionally-rendered skating arenas.
This time, Tony Hawk “The Bird Man”, is your mentor. He
will teach you everything you need to know about tricks, lines,
combos and racing. That’s right, racing. This time around, there is
no time to fall-off your board; you need to race, and win. Tony
Hawk’s Downhill Jam allows you to skate for Points in
competitions, whilst performing tricks. Racing others down the
hilly lands all over the world, you are also treated to further
distractions such as Missions involving grinding for nine-thousand
feet in two minutes. There are five different countries to travel
too, each consisting of nine different challenges, and three
unlockable Main Events which will pass you on to
 the next location.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill
Jam also allows play online using the
NintendoDS’s Wi-Fi connection, you can play your friends and others
all over the world, but there is something special about the online
mode - and that is you can play the World Tour Mode online, setting
records for others around the world to compete with. Sadly, there
are only five different countries to compete on, but the challenge
comes from the fact that you do have to come first in
everything.
There are loads of cool new features in this
Tony
Hawk’s game. Performing tricks will grant you a Boost,
similarly to the SSX games by Electronic Arts. This is a
nice feature that has been well thought-through – seemingly more so
than the sister-release of
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam on Wii -
because when the Meter is full, a new Bar will begin, with the full
Bar filling a symbol under the Boost Meter. There are four to fill
and if you finish a Race, Competition or a Mission and you still
have some of the Boost symbols full, you get to add them to your
Stats making you better at something. There is another new feature
which helps you when you’re racing, and that is the ability to
slide around corners; much quicker than going round them manually.
If you’re new to Cel-Shading then it will take a few
minutes to appreciate the game’s graphical qualities. The visuals
in Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam aren’t fantastic, but they don’t
have to be, it’s meant to look cartoon-esque, and not realistic.
But with one of the Levels containing clear evidence of Polygon
Pop-Up, it’s obvious a little more tweaking wouldn’t have gone
amiss. A lot of games on the NintendoDS have a form of music akin
to the casual 8-bit ditties of the late 1980’s, very rarely providing an aural offering on par with its rival handheld the PSP,
but in Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam there is real music.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill
 Jam brings a new form of
skating; this time it’s a race to the finish. Make your own
character, skate in five different countries on the world tour,
take a Jam Session; play a Level but play it like the old Tony
Hawk’s games – more commonly referred to as “Classic Mode” -
with High-Scores to achieve and air time to fly, or maybe you want
lessons from the Bird Man himself, Tony Hawk. Your reputation is on
the line you need to become the best Downhill Jammer, and to do
this you need to come first. Listen to Tony on your travels, and he
will help you out with tips and other useful things; this game is
an everybody game, designed for everyone to play, and
so that anyone could have fun. |
