By Anthony Swinnich on December 9th, 2005

Many might have expected a version similar to the GBA games to hit the DS, but Activision went all out and created a fully 3D title for the DS, and it’s surprisingly great. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that not only is Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land better than the console game that inspired it (Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland), it’s the best Tony Hawk game since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Sk8land won’t bring disenchanted fans back into the fold, but it’s closer to a traditional Tony Hawk experience than any game has come in four years.

The most important thing Sk8land accomplishes isn’t some crazy addition to eek an extra five-hundred thousand points out of a combo. Sk8land ushers in a sort-of return to basics. Most of the new moves from the games since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 are here, including the sticker slap, and the natas spin. However, the big omission, and greatest boon, is the fact that you can’t get off your board and walk around. This forces the game to return to it’s roots; it forces it to focus on great skateboarding action and great skateboarding action alone.

Being restricted to a skateboard ironically strengthens the Tony Hawk-style of gameplay. You can’t climb up a building to start a run-- you have to work your ass off and find a way up there using only your balance and your wits, by grinding phone wires and wall-riding. There was a sense of accomplishment by getting to the top of a building in the games where you couldn’t get off your board, and in Sk8land this feeling returns.

But as far as gameplay innovations go, Sk8land doesn’t do much. The gameplay is the same-- rack up a super score by linking as many tricks together as you can, which will get you cash to buy things with and open up new levels. There aren’t any new moves here, but for once that’s a good thing; I really believe the Tony Hawk games have too many moves now. Special moves are done by tapping an icon on the touch-screen, and while kind of disorienting at first you eventually get used to it. It’s also noteworthy that the tutorials in the game don’t treat the player like they’ve never played an extreme sports game before, and are much easier to swallow than those in previous Hawk games.

Sk8land takes a lot of cues from it’s big brother in terms of presentation, but isn’t as obnoxious or irritating when it comes to the story. There is surprisingly decent amount of voice acting in the game, though most of it comes from the same girl in American Wasteland. It’s not shocking that there isn’t much voice acting though, because the rest of the space was probably used for the music. There aren’t nearly as many songs as the console versions, but I was shocked to see them cram about ten songs on this DS game card.

Graphically, Sk8land holds up well. It was a good move to cel shade the game, because realistic graphics wouldn’t have looked nearly as stylish or smooth; it’s nice to see a developer playing to the strength of the DS’ capabilities for a change. My only real complaint is that sometimes it’s difficult to see where a railing begins and ends since they’re so thin, and a lot of times you’ll fall off because you didn’t see a gap.

While the story mode is fairly short, it’s enjoyable while it lasts. Players will have classic mode to play through as well, but since it uses the same stages as story mode, the thrill of exploration is spent before you play it. You could play them in the opposite order, but either way one of the modes suffers. Seeing as how both of these modes will probably last only a couple of hours each, it’s of great help to the game that it’s playable over the Nintendo Wi-Fi service.

Sk8land offers up some of the basic modes of online play that are found in other online enabled Tony Hawks, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that they’re as enjoyable as they are. Graffiti tag and horse fail to make an appearance, but "The Price is Wrong" is a worthy addition. Maybe in an inevitable sequel, more modes will be presented. The community Activision is attempting to build around the game is possibly the bigger story here. Players can upload lots of data, such as scores, or their own custom tags, and also download new weekly challenges that don’t initially come with the game, which really bolsters the replay value.

Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land ushers in a return to form-- a rebirth made possible only by going backwards. I always knew something was missing in the newer Tony Hawk games, and American Sk8land helped me pinpoint that the focus on skateboarding was what it was; it’s good to see it back in full effect. Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land is among the best in the Tony Hawk series, and if you aren’t already sick of the formula you should pick this one up-- it’s the best version to come out in the last four years.