Live Out Your Skate Dreams In America's Wasteland

Can anybody reading this review remember a year that a new Tony Hawk game didn't come out? I can't, and that’s because this is the seventh Tony Hawk game in the series starting with four games named Pro Skater, Two named Underground, and this one named American Wasteland. The first four Pro Skater games are nothing short of classic. The games consisted in traveling to different locations throughout the world and skating in a spot that somehow reflects that part of the world and completing goals or skating in a competition. The Underground games introduced a new concept into the series.

In the two Underground games instead of traveling to different locations you are placed in a more realistic environment and have to complete goals there. It also introduced be able to get off your board, run around, and pilot and ride other things besides a skateboard.

Game Modes

The real meat n' potatoes of the game is story mode. You take control of a skater that has come from a smaller town to Hollywood to try to make it in a skating career. As expected your character gets a large number of breaks that leave you wondering if such a thing could happen in reality...oh well, its quite fun. The story takes you to a number of places around Hollywood such as Downtown LA, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and a few more.

The re-addition of classic mode takes the game back to its pro skater roots. There are six different levels in which you have to do similar things to the classic game such as collect S-K-A-T-E by finding the letters scattered throughout the level and accumulating enough points to achieve the high score or sick score. There are also some "create a" modes. In these modes you can create your own skater, graphic, or even your own skateboard park. Creating your own skate park is fun because there are some pieces you can place in your park that are pieces not found in real parks.

Gameplay

Gameplay has always been a very bright spot for the Tony Hawk series. Everything flows well with even more of the environment usable. You can grind on just about anything, climb up walls, and even spin around on poles and fire hydrants. The controls are somewhat simple but can come to be complex as you progress in your skill and want to increase the number of tricks you can do. In story mode you usually just ride up to things or people and that will take you to a mission rather than using menus and that helps the flow of the game. I'm not sure why this game was marketed as having no loading screens because there are loading screens, but they are brief.

Sound

The sounds of the skateboard wheels rolling across the street, paint being lost while sliding rails, or your skateboarder hitting the ground after you pushed the wrong button is realistic and very close to what it would sound like in reality. There is also a soundtrack that plays while you are skating, and its okay. There are mostly what I would call "Pop-punk" songs but there are also some hip-hop and punk songs thrown in there.

Graphics

All graphics in the game are clean and certainly add to the game play. The character models are nicely done and distinct from one another. In the story mode levels there are other people in the level and even other skaters at some of the locations. The cities look like a city should look like with distinct streets and sidewalks and a variety of buildings.

Online Play

The concept of playing this game online is a very good one, but playing THAW online is something I tend to avoid. The forums are filled with pre-teens who tend to usually talk about how great a band Green Day is or how one needs a girlfriend. Also you can use created parks in online play, and people make parks with the intention of "freezing" everybody that enters their park. If you can find a decent game online is fun, if not, I’d rather just beat classic mode again.

Final Thoughts

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is a good game that will keep you entertained for a little while, but people with other Tony Hawk games should know this game is fairly similar to past games so spend your cash accordingly. The game is dropping in price (most likely in anticipation for next years Tony Hawk game), and is a super value.