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Tony Hawk's American Sk8land Seven years. That's how long it's been since Tony Hawk Pro Skater first rolled onto the PlayStation. Like it or not, Hawk is now a part of the gaming canon, committed to rolling out yearly updates. Indeed, Activision has exclusive rights to the Hawk brand until 2015 - we're not even halfway through the series' life. It's a testament to the quality of the first game's design, though, that the core mechanics have barely changed since. Despite the new levels, features and soundtrack, the same four-button, ollie/grind/flip/grab system remains at its core.
The first three Hawk games had one simple mechanic: in a two minute session, complete as many set goals as possible. Rinse and repeat, until all the goals are complete. A certain threshold opens up the next map. In Pro Skater 4, the two-minute system was abandoned, replaced by a free-roaming world, with non-player characters offering missions to you as you cruised around. This approach was developed more fully in the next two Hawk Games, in which the "Pro Skater" moniker was abandoned, and Tony Hawk's Underground was born - complete with narrative-led, freeform missions.
In 2005, there have been not one but two new arrivals in the Hawk family. And, as so often can happen with twins if you're not careful, one of them has been awfully neglected. On the "grown-up" home consoles, we have Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, which is essentially Tony Hawk's Underground 3. It's moved so far from its roots that it now even lets you ride BMX bikes. This is not, friends, what Tony Hawk should be about. The other twin, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land on the Nintendo DS, is. It's a very different game with a very different name, taking the Hawk series back to its roots, and adding a little twist at the same time.
The most obvious twist is the game's graphical style. It's rendered in a cel-shaded style, which works surprisingly effectively; the framerate is consistent and smooth, and the world has a solid feel to it. The cel-shaded style also ties in with the "plot" of story mode - namely, that you're an East Coast skater heading over to the West Coast to prove yourself (and also earn money to renovate an old skate warehouse), whilst your friend Mindy draws a skate comic. Indeed, the comic-book style of the cutscenes is handled perfectly, with a cut-out style of animation that most closely resembles Terry Gilliam's animations in Monty Python. The game - and Tony Hawk himself - aren't adverse to sending themselves up a little, either, which fits the game's status as a "little brother" rather well.
The main play mode plays much like Pro Skater 4, in that it's a series of challenges met by talking to people. Complete enough, and you face a pro challenge - which if you win, gets you a stack of money opens the next level, and allows you to purchase an obstacle for your warehouse. In an interesting twist, the warehouse happens to be the final level of the game - so it's in your interest to design it to allow the best opportunities for combos. It's a nice touch, as it gives the player a real sense of ownership - and, given there are over 6000 potential arrangements for the warehouse, makes you feel as if you're attempting something no-one else might have.
Sadly, Story mode is (bar one difficulty spike halfway through) rather easy. Fortunately, it's actually just one third of the game. The real meat can be found in Classic mode, where you take either your own created character or one of ten skate pros through the maps in old-school two minute challenges. The difficulty curve here is much better; it starts off easy, but ends up truly challenging. It's ideally suited to a handheld, too; the two-minute burst style of play is a perfect match for commutes, journeys, or periods of downtime.
American Sk8land is a fairly conventional game, and you might not expect it to take much advantage of the DS's unique interface and features. It's fair to say that it doesn't exactly make revolutionary use of the touchscreen, using it only for a map, a few extra "virtual" buttons, and designing your skater's board and appearance. But whilst the touchscreen is neglected, the wireless capabilities of the DS are exploited wonderfully, with a deep and challenging online experience over Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.
Mario Kart DS came out the week after Hawk, and its online mode rather stole American Sk8land's thunder, which is a shame, given that the Hawk experience is in many ways much deeper and better designed. You can engage in score attack modes or play head-to-head in a variety of modes with other players. You can even download top replays for each level. And, of course, other boarders can see your own player outfit and custom decks. Best of all, the game fully integrates with the community website, so you can see every players custom designs and top scores from your web browser (here are my paltry efforts). It's a real achievement, and one worth forgiving some of the game's rougher edges for.
So, in short, we have Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 by any other name - and all in the palm of your hand. The game's still a bit of a handful to play. The complexity continually added throughout the series means that there's now a lot of double-tapping of the d-pad (for flips and barrel rolls) and trick buttons (for advanced tricks). Also, as the top online players show, the highest scores tend to be scored by abusing the game system. But it's still a delightful game to play, technically very impressive, and better suited to its handheld platform than I think anyone might have expected. It's also a lot better than its home console big brother, American Wasteland, making its publisher's criminal under-promotion of it a real shame.
For newcomers to the series, American Sk8land is a great place to start. Hawk veterans will still find something to challenge them, though, and might be pleased to note that the game harks back to a more refined time in the Hawk canon. Something for everyone, then.
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