Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Wii) (gamespy)

- gamespy -

Up until three days ago, I'd not had a chance to sit down and play Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam on the Wii. I'm a big fan of Neversoft's ultra-popular Pro Skater series, so I was a little dubious, to say the least, about this seemingly random spin-off. After all, PlayStation 3, 360 and current-gen all managed to get Project 8, so why didn't Activision opt to do the same on the Wii? After only a few minutes of playing THDJ I realized why this was the case. Put simply, the intricate controls of the regular skating series just wouldn't map very well to the Wii. It was a great choice to try something different, however, and here's why.

THDJ has a great deal in common with EA's excellent SSX snowboarding series. Cynics might in fact say that it's SSX on a skateboard, but there's more to the story than that. Sure, at its core, THDJ is a fast-paced extreme sports racer, but it manages to capture the spirit of the regular Pro Skater series very well.

So here's the deal with the controls. You only need to use the Wii Remote for THDJ, and there's a lot in common with Excite Truck's controls. Basic control sees you tilting the remote left and right to steer, and holding the 2 button to crouch to gain speed. Releasing the 2 button makes you bust out an ollie and from here you'll be able to perform grinds, flip tricks, grab tricks and the power-giving No Comply and Boneless moves.

When you're airborne, you'll also be able to tilt the controller to spin your skater left or right. For large grab tricks, holding down the 2 button in the air and hitting various different directions on the D-pad will cause you to pull off different moves. Some of the more advanced techniques include attacking other skaters or members of the public, wall riding, sticker slapping, flips and the all-important power slide. Pressing and holding the A button will initiate the power slide, and if you manage to hold it long enough, you'll build up a little charge meter that can result in a nice temporary speed boost. Nailing all manner of combinational tricks will increase your Zone Bone meter (different from the power slide meter) and by waggling the remote up and down furiously, you can spend some of your earned Zone Bone meter power to kick off another short speed boost.

Finally, there's also a SPECIAL meter on the screen too, and when it's full (pulling off combos will fill it up) you'll be able to pull off some wild character-specific moves by hitting the A button together with either the 1 or 2 button. This is really the best method of racking up huge scores.

The game features a full single-player Downhill Challenge mode as well as two- to four-player split-screen multiplayer action. The single-player game is where the legs of the experience reside. You get to choose from a limited selection of skaters -- the only real-life one is Tony himself -- but you'll be able to unlock more as you play. There's even a create-a-skater mode which gives up the goods on a decent amount of customization. Each skater has his or her own attributes, like balance, combat and speed, and initially only one deck will be usable. Now you'll embark on a massive quest to beat all of the many levels in the game, which are split up into eight "real world" locations like Tokyo, Scotland and even The Alps. As you'd expect, the more you play and beat the challenges, the more stages, decks, and goals and rewards get unlocked.

Each level starts you out at the top of a large hill. The idea is to skate down as fast as possible, and depending on the individual challenge at hand, either beat the other skaters, achieve a certain score from tricking, or make it through a set number of timed goal checkpoints. There are variations on each challenge that get repeated and mixed up as you progress, so you'll be able to see many different paths and routes from the different locations as you play more.

Out of all of the challenge types, I personally enjoy the trick challenges, which lead to being able to pull off crazy-massive tricks. The key here is to string together giant point-building combos (again, just like the SSX series has taught us in the past). You'll get placed at gold, silver or bronze for first, second or third positions, but you'll get diddlysquat for coming in fourth or below. I'd say that around the first two or three hours of the Downhill Challenge are pretty straightforward. You'll earn rank-up points for beating the challenges, and at certain intervals you'll "rank up" from a novice all the way to a pro skater.

THDJ plays very, very well. The Wii's smart motion-sensitive control system is absolutely perfect for this kind of game, and I personally think that in this instance, THDJ has a better, more accurate control system than Nintendo's Excite Truck has to offer. It just feels tight and spot-on. From basic turning skills to advanced trick combos, there's never really a point where you'll be blaming the control system for your own mistakes. It's also worth noting that the trick system is a lot easier to master than that found in the regular Pro Skater franchise. All the way from epic grinds that last entire course runs to stringing together large combos, it's just easier and in some ways more fun and accessible than previous Tony Hawk games.

In terms of the multiplayer game, there's not too much to get excited about. This is mostly due to the cramped split-screen nature of the design, but without online play available this is to be expected. In short, the multiplayer game is not the reason you'll want to own THDJ. For those interested, there are six different multiplayer modes, including the slightly twisted Steal the Head (whoever holds onto a head longest wins), slalom, elimirace and trick. There's a good amount of variety, but actually enjoying the multiplayer aspect of the game is fleeting.

Graphically, the game does a decent job of providing a fast sense of speed and a slick frame rate. The overall look of the game is a little garish and nothing really special, but the characters are likable enough and the levels are colorful and really well-designed. The game's soundtrack, however, is pretty awesome. Even though there's no way to access the full listing in the game itself through the menus, you'll be treated to thrash classics from the likes of Iron Maiden, Ministry and Motorhead that fit the game's sensibilities perfectly.

I like Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. It's got a few issues that hold it back from being an instant classic, but if you're looking for a great alternative racing game and you've got a penchant for extreme sports -- and who doesn't these days -- then you really need to check this one out. It's different for the Tony Hawk franchise and makes a welcome distraction for the Wii.