Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (DS) Review
Posted by Chris McCarver on 01.01.2007
Finally, a new Tony Hawk game that doesn't reek of rehash.
Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Vicarious Visions
ESRB Rating: E
Release Date: Oct. 24, 2006
Review by CHRIS McCARVER
Hear that grinding noise? No, that’s not your trucks scraping across a sweet length of guardrail. That, dear readers, is the sound of the Tony Hawk gaming franchise. I remember getting to play the PS1 version of Tony Hawk Pro Skater back in Century Two-Zero and being mesmerized by its ease of control and variety of gameplay. Unfortunately, while the eight sequels to follow started out being really good, eventually the Birdman’s skateboarding-game formula gave way to kitschy Z-grade comedy supplanting innovation, leading to the franchise’s slow decline. So when Activision rolls out another Tony Hawk game, the grains of salt I take those announcement with are the size of stereo speakers. Let us now turn our attentions to the second Tony Hawk game developed for the Nintendo DS, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty much what you’d expect when you try to do any kind of 3-D-rendered game engine on a handheld. As relatively powerful as the DS is, Downhill Jam still looks like a PS1 game (though an admittedly first-rate one), meaning lots of pixelization and occasional pop-in of background details. Developer Vicarious Visions, who has ported Tony Hawk console titles to handhelds for years, still managed to give this title a nicely-animated engine that more than makes up for the system’s graphics limitations.
The game’s cutscenes are done “Japanese RPG” style, meaning still images of each character accompanying voiceovers and text blocks. The characters are depicted in comic-book style caricature, which seems to work well with the over-the-top presentation.
Gameplay
Downhill Jam’s gameplay can be summed up fairly succinctly: think SSX Tricky on asphalt. The focus this time is not so much on hitting awesome tricks, but on downhill racing. The object of the majority of the game is to skate to the finish line before everyone else. But this racing title isn’t 100% speed, because pulling off tricks and grinds is key to increasing your skater’s rate of speed; tricks fill up a boost meter that will kick your board’s velocity up at the press of a face button. This adds a nice additional dimension to the gameplay, but the concept of tricks=boost isn’t entirely original.
Downhill Jam is played out over the course of six massive courses, each with a wide selection of alternate routes and areas to pull tricks off of. Six courses may not seem like a lot, but the sheer size of each one definitely offsets that foible. Gamers more used to the traditional Tony Hawk formula will still have a few freestyle contests to compete in, wherein your tricks are scored rather than finishing first.
The controls are easy to pick up even if you’ve never touched a Tony Hawk game in your life. One of two face buttons in combination with the D-pad can pull off any trick, plus there’s the new feature of “burnsliding,” which makes your skater brake with one hand for tight turns, which is enacted by the shoulder buttons. The buttons are also completely mappable in the options menu (I personally had to reconfigure my interface to have the boost and ollie buttons near one another, so as to hit them at the same time if need be).
And since this is a Tony Hawk game, we have to talk about Create-a-Skater, right? It’s here, and it’s surprisingly deep considering the DS’ graphical constraints. Not only does the feature contain a lot of clothing and body-part options, but you can create custom art for your shirts and decks using a MS-Paint-like drawing program you control with the stylus.
Sound
I’m honestly impressed by the deep amount of audio this game supplies. Downhill Jam contains full voiceovers and a soundtrack boasting over a dozen tracks of licensed music that all fits well within the extreme-sports theme. And when I say full voiceovers, I mean with every word of the cutscene dialogue, not just a short voice cue to start things off.
Also of note with the game’s audio is that Downhill Jam is the first game on the DS to support full voice chat during wi-fi multiplayer, which (since you were wondering why I hadn’t yet mentioned much about the touch-screen functionality) is enacted by send-and-receive controls on the touch-screen. The voice-chat feature isn’t real-time though; you basically record a 3-second clip that is saved and broadcast to the DS’s of your opponents. One downside to the voice-chat feature is that you can’t record a message while someone else is doing the same.
Lasting Appeal
The longevity of this game lies primarily in its wi-fi multiplayer capability, which is a staunch improvement from Vicarious Visions’ offering in this area on their previous Tony Hawk DS effort, American Sk8land. Four players can now go head-to-head, although, like American Sk8land, there’s no lobby system in place to organize matches. Consider it wise to keep a little black book of friend codes instead.
Surprisingly, the most enjoyment players will get out of the game will not be from the game itself, but from Activision’s website for the game, which, in a nod to Xbox Live, tracks your stats and will even allow you to upload your custom Create-a-Skater art.
Fun Factor
Little doubt exists that this game is fun to play. The racing is not only a nice twist on the skateboarding formula but it’s also fast, intuitive, and very enjoyable. I should advise players expecting this game to be a bite-size rendition of the Wii game of the same name to think twice. The name and overall theme of the title is all the DS version shares; Downhill Jam has a completely new level structure and cast of supporting characters.
That aside, the game takes the Tony Hawk franchise in new directions, though at the expense of what has made the franchise famous, namely the free-roaming gamescapes, which this game sadly lacks. That and the clunky network experience might be enough to consider taking a pass on Downhill Jam, but those who give it a chance are going to find it a fun and challenging extreme-racing experience that’ll keep it in your DS cartridge slot for a long, long time.
The 411
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam (at least the DS version [gimme a break, I just got my Wii a few days ago]) is a fresh take on the Birdman’s signature skateboarding series that has been in need for a very long time. The racing action combined with the freestyle skating mechanics is a nice change of pace that harkens back to the downhill levels of the earlier Tony Hawk games. While I hesitate to say this direction is where further Tony Hawk titles should go, Downhill Jam is a nice diversion between Project 8 and wherever Tony Hawk and Activision decide to take us next.
Graphics
7.0
Well animated 3D engine, interesting comicbook style caricatures in menu screens and cutscenes, graphics still succumb to limitations of DS
Gameplay
9.5
Downhill racing a new twist on the franchise, control interface is easy to pick up and fully customizable, surprisingly deep character customization feature
Sound
8.5
Full voiceovers during cutscenes, numerous licensed tracks of BG music, voice-chat is useful but a bit clunky
Lasting Appeal
8.5
Wealth of options in online multiplayer, publisher's website tracks stats and progress, wi-fi capabilities hampered by constraints of Nintendo network
Fun Factor
8.0
Fresh and fun take on the genre, stand-alone original and not simply a port of the Wii version, lacks the free-roam features of earlier Tony Hawk games
