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Activision ports Downhill Jam to the PS2. Originally released for the Nintendo Wii’s launch last November, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is a totally different take on the Tony Hawk franchise. Best described as SSX on wheels, the game emphasized speed to the point of chaos but still kept the series’ token tricks and grinds. The big selling point, of course, was the use of the Wiimote, which is obviously missing in the PS2 game. The end result is a fun game—just one not quite as fun as it was on Wii.
Downhill Jam has a number of singleplayer modes at its disposal. You’ll spend most of your time in Downhill Challenge, where you complete tons of events across eight world locations and unlock new outfits, characters and boards. You can also record ghosts and race against them in order to improve your playing. 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, three of which are new to the PS2 version. 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.
The basic gameplay in Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is simple: 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 and grinds in the game. 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. Pulling off moves increases your boost and special meter, which allow you to get a boost and pull off a special move, respectively. 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.
Part of the reason that the Wii version was so fun was because the sort-of loose Wiimote controls worked wonderfully with this game. It doesn’t really require precision and flinging the Wiimote around felt natural. When you fell, shaking it to get back up also felt natural since you really wanted to shake something. The PS2 version has traditional controls which offer a lot more precision but also removes, at least in part, the chaotic, frantic nature that the game previously had.
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam supports split-screen offline multiplayer. The game supports three gameplay modes: quick play, event series and single event. Quick play lets you choose a skater and throws you in a location and event, single event lets you choose which location and game type you want to play, and event series lets you play a type of race in multiple locations. The multiplayer mode supports eight events—up from five in the Wii version—which are: race, slalom, trick, steal the head, eliminirace, air time, mayhem and yard sale.
On PS2, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam has clean graphics that are remarkably similar to those of the Wii version. The character models look pretty good with a level of detail similar to the other PS2 Tony Hawk games. Environments have a similar level of detail. They’re fairly colorful and stylish although the actual architecture and geometry isn’t advanced. The PS2 version did have some problems with loading textures although these are few and far in between.
The game’s audio is pretty good, too. The soundtrack includes 40 songs. The songs include Thursday’s “At This Velocity,” Public Enemy’s “She Watch Channel Zero,” Motorhead’s “Motorhead,” and Iron Maiden’s “Different Worlds.” The sound effects are pretty good. You’ll hear every grind, kickflip, and bail in the game. In a pretty fun twist, you’ll also hear some sound effects from the speaker included in the Wii Remote. They aren’t particularly complex sounds but it’s a nice touch nonetheless.
On Wii, Downhill Jam was a great party game. On the PS2, it’s more like SSX-Lite. The game is still fun but if you have a choice get the undoubtedly superior Wii version. If you don’t have access to a Wii, the PS2 version is still a solid buy if you’re interested in the concept. It also has new events, characters, and customizable stuff. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- May 9, 2007
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