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On the Nintendo DS, Tony Hawk takes a wildly different approach. As the name implies, Downhill Jam tosses out the traditional Tony Hawk structure for a focus on downhill skating. The action is fast and frantic, although there are still some Tony Hawk tricks and moves thrown in for good fun.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam includes the expected single-player gameplay modes. You’ll find Quick Race, Jam Session (similar to the previous games’ classic modes where you’re given specific, timed objectives), and World Tour mode (the game’s story mode where you join Tony Hawk on a number of tournaments around the world).
Tony Hawk is the only licensed, playable skater in the game, but you can also play as a created skater or one of the many original characters. Your created skater can be greatly customized thanks to the ability to change your outfit and fully customize your board. The original characters have different attributes, strengths and weaknesses. Aside from the different characteristics of the skaters, the boards also have their own set of attributes to keep track of. You control your skater with the D pad and pull off your moves with the face buttons. The touch screen is used sparingly to use a turbo boost.
The basic gameplay in Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is simple. You have to race downhill as fast as possible. It would have been a waste to throw out years’ worth of skating gameplay so Downhill Jam still includes some of that. You’ll find air tricks, grinds, and even manuals to extend your tricks. You need to balance pulling off tricks and maintaining a quick speed to get downhill as fast as possible. Don’t think that pulling off tricks will detract from your racing; if you don’t pull off a trick perfectly, you’ll end with a sloppy land that will slow you down but won’t cause you to bail. Of course, this means that levels are littered with rails, ramps, and curves to show these moves off. You’ll race in many locations including Hong Kong, San Francisco, Rio and the Hoover Dam.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam makes full use of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection, as well as local wireless multiplayer. The game includes leaderboards, in-game voice chat (a Nintendo DS first), and multiplayer support for up to three other players. The game has 20 multiplayer modes: 10 competitive modes and 10 cooperative modes. The competitive modes include Air Time, Elimination Race, Elimination Skate, Grind Distance, Race, and Score Run. Many of these modes also have a cooperative variant so you’ll find modes like Team Score, Team Air Time, Time Grind Distance, etc. As you can tell, the multiplayer modes incorporate both the racing and trick elements of the game.
Visually, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is one of the most technically competent Nintendo DS games available. The characters animate very well, although there is little actual detail in their models. The environments look good, especially when you’re going down at breathtaking speeds. The framerate stays locked at 60 frames per second, ensuring that the action is always silky smooth. The game has cel-shaded art style similar to Sk8land so it’s also aesthetically impressive in that category.
The audio presentation is also strong. Like with Sk8land, you can still record your voice to play back in the game. The sound effects should be familiar to those who have played Sk8land and still sound great on the Nintendo DS. Downhill Jam boasts licensed songs again. The playlist includes “Even I don’t know,” Drive,” “Oceans of class,” “The gold song,” and “the promise.” It is your typical rock fare but nonetheless flows in well with the game.
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam manages to breathe new life into the franchise by focusing on downhill skating while still incorporating many of the tricks and technical skills found in the previous games.
-- Jose Liz & -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 25, 2006
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