Tony Hawk's American Sk8land DS (official)

[SpoDaddy]

First impressions are up at IGN:

http://ds.ign.com/articles/666/666598p1.html

Though most of the attention from DS owners this week will be on Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk is nothing to scoff at -- American Sk8land will share the spotlight with Mario Kart DS as the first batch of games to support the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection service for worldwide multiplayer action. Our review will be coming in the next couple of days, but in the meantime we're going to take a look at the online functions of Tony Hawk American Sk8land for the DS, features which will be available to you right out of the box when you pick up a copy. As long as you can get yourself to a Wi-Fi connection, that is.

Like Mario Kart DS, American Sk8land will go online with a minimal of fuss. And if you've already set up your Mario Kart DS with your Wi-Fi Hotspot information, that data will carry over to the American Sk8land because, stealthily, Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection details is actually hard-written to the DS system that you use to go online.
Going online is a simple matter of clicking on the Wireless function of the Tony Hawk American Sk8land option menu. Once here you can set up a local game or hit the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

Like most Tony Hawk games, American Sk8land has multiple options for multiplayer gaming. The same functions that players can jump into through local wireless connection are also available through the Wi-Fi Connection, and these can be played with either friends or complete strangers. Similar to Mario Kart DS, players can enter Friends Codes to lock in their friends list to match-up with buddies, but there's also a random match-up option where two players will be paired up by the server.

Game options include the standard Trick Attack competition for the best score in a set amount of time, as well as a Combo Mambo where players try to pull off the highest point string. Most promising is a new mode: The Price is Wrong, where players rack up their score and try to be the first to get into the range that's the closest to a set point score; if you happen to go over, you'll need to perform tricks to have that point value subtracted from your score. It's a nifty balancing act and a cool addition.

Sadly, two favorites didn't make the cut for this Tony Hawk experience. "Graffiti Tag," the mode where players "own" items in the skate park by tricking off of them, and "Horse," the single trick competition, are not here in this DS version. I'd love to say that the other gameplay modes make up for the omission, but I wouldn't be entirely truthful -- the modes here are worth the price of admission, but any Tony fan will notice that the two most played multiplayer modes didn't get into this portable package.

We had a chance to tinker around with these modes online, and playing over the Wi-Fi Connection is just as seamless as doing it locally…you just can't chat with the player you're competing against when you're online. When the two players jump into a linked game together, they can freely skate independently in the park that's designated the "lobby." If the player wants, they can hit the Select button and view the action from the other person's perspective. Lag does come into play, so it's not surprising to see the animations of the other player move around a bit more clunky than your own on-screen avatar. But the game speed is identical to what you experience in single player modes, so it's as seamless as possible.

When players want to match up in some point-scoring competitions, one simply hits Start and makes his choice of which game to play, and in which park to play it. When the other person accepts the challenge, the game boots to the chosen skatepark and the competition's on.

The online functionality of Tony Hawk's American Sk8land moves beyond the multiplayer competition, and most of the additional options are pulled up in any PC web browser. Activision and Vicarious Visions launched the American Sk8land website where these features can be explored.

By linking your game card to a username on the website, the game will upload all the data that you've accumulated in the single player competition and have it ranked with the rest of the bunch. High scores, best grinds, and manuals are some of the data that's uploaded to the server…but only if you choose to upload it. Players can also download replays from specific players' best runs to see just how they earned that ranking online.

Weren't some people claiming that you had to reconfigure your wifi settings for each new game? I remember hearing on these boards that unlike the PSP, the DS can't store those settings to the system or a memory card as one of the big "knocks" on the Nintendo wi-fi setup. That chunk I bolded claims otherwise.

Personally, I'm really excited about this game. I like the idea of cel shaded old school Tony Hawk gameplay, portable with a quality Dpad and online. Those score/graphiti upload/download features sound really fantastic too.

[Agent X]

Weren't some people claiming that you had to reconfigure your wifi settings for each new game? I remember hearing on these boards that unlike the PSP, the DS can't store those settings to the system or a memory card as one of the big "knocks" on the Nintendo wi-fi setup. That chunk I bolded claims otherwise.

That was me. I had read that elsewhere that you had to reconfigure your connection each time you got a different game. I'll gladly admit to being wrong in this case.

[SpoDaddy]

Agent: Wasn't trying to snipe at you or anything, just asking for verification of the IGN info. It wouldn't be the first time they were wrong.

I'm still anxiously awaiting the first review of this game, I'll post it as soon as it hits (unless someone posts it here first, of course).

[Andy]

I refuse to support anything with the word "Sk8" in it's title, out of sheer respect to the English language.

[SpoDaddy]

The last two games were abbreviated to "THUG", and the Tony Hawk games have always pushed the whole extreme urban lack of education angle. It's the natural progression of the series that they start replacing syllables with numbers.

[Jeremy]

It's amazing how much the cel-shading makes it look like JGR. Well, in some shots anyway.

[Bacon McShig]

I was thinking about getting it, but I don't think I can tear myself away from Mario Kart.

Also, the thought of playing TH with the DS' opposite-of-ergonomic controls makes my hands tremble in fear. MK is already cramping them enough, I don't need bones jutting out on top of it.

[sethsez]

Picked it up.

So far I really like it. The story is cheesy as hell, but that seems to be the intent, and at least it's not full of all the "attitude" of the later console games. You can't get off your board, so the focus is entirely on skating again (thank god), and it's just generally lacking a bunch of the bullshit that's been weighing down the later games. It's nice to have a more focused Tony Hawk game again, even if it obviously doesn't reach the heights of the first two.

[avatar]

How's the on-line. Is it better than MK's?

[sethsez]

Haven't tried it yet. I want to get a feel for the parks before I go online.