Last year on the DS, Activison took the Tony Hawk series back to its roots with the awesome Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land, and I couldn’t have been happier. I was slightly disappointed to find out that the next installment in the series would stray even farther from original form than games before last year’s return, but alas, change is something the series has needed for years now. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is a game inspired by several levels found in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, though it doesn’t follow traditional Tony Hawk conventions; this division of the series falls into the racing genre. While it’s a decent game in its own right, the racing elements don’t make the same kind of splash that any of the elements in the series’ original entries did. Add on some rubber band A.I. frustration issues and Downhill Jam ultimately ends up as a rather forgettable game.
"... the real draw here is the online multiplayer mode..."
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As I said before, Downhill Jam is a racing game, so the main objective is getting from start to finish before your opponents do, or before a certain amount of time runs out. That’s not to say that performing obscenely unrealistic tricks is no longer a part of the series, because it’s still as important as ever. Performing tricks fills a boost meter, which will help you get down the hill at a faster speed. The boost is an absolute necessity if you want to succeed. The bigger the combo performed, the more boost you’ll gain, so players should still trick to their heart’s content.
The courses are laid out to allow for a decent amount of tricking, but require that you play through them a few times to learn the best runs. While this increases the amount of playtime, it’s hard not to become a little annoyed as the computer knows exactly which route will get them from point A to point B fastest. An even bigger gripe with the computer players, however, is the rubber band A.I. If you’re behind them, they take off like rockets, which is fairly realistic in a racing scenario. Chances are you won’t catch up, and you can always restart. The problem lies in how they catch up when you’re a head. No matter how well you race, it seems like any lead you gain results in one of two situations: a tenth of a second finish difference or an out of nowhere catch-up win for one of the silicon-based skaters.
There’s a decent amount of levels to unlock in the game, and the career mode flows well — Downhill Jam doesn’t force you into playing one stage for too long and only requires about half of the objectives be completed before moving on. Also worth noting is that gamers can go back and complete the rest of the objectives in past levels if they wish. Even with the extra objectives, the career would probably be a lot shorter than it is if it weren’t for the cheap A.I. artificially extending the length.
"... Downhill Jam ultimately ends up as a rather forgettable game."
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Of course, racing isn’t the only mode you’ll find in the game’s anime inspired career mode. Some events still require the player to reach a certain score — by launching off a series of big air ramps; a high score must be attained to move on. You’ll only get a couple of ramps to reach the score, so creativity is a must. There are also Style competitions, where players must trick out as uniquely as they can. Using the same trick twice will reduce your style points, as will bailing a trick, or falling. These events can be fun when you get the hang of them, but the scoring seems to suffer the same affliction as the A.I.— your opponents are never quite far behind you, and sometimes score ahead of you even when you perform exceptionally well. While the events break up the racing segments, they usually don’t take very long to complete and feel pretty worthless in general.
If racing the computer has gotten completely under your skin, or you’re feeling exceptionally confident in your abilities, you can always take the game to the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with Downhill Jam’s robust multiplayer mode. The game offers four-player races for just about every single-player mode available, and even offers in-race voice chat, though severely limited in application. It turns out you record what you want to say, then send it out. It’s not quite real time, but it’s something to be tinkered with for next year’s obligatory sequel.
Online, players will undoubtedly "abuse" create-a-skater’s with maxed out stats, but it’s the same philosophy any Tony Hawk multiplayer mode has followed for years — if you put the work in to upgrade a skater, you should be able to use them. Just don’t expect to turn the game on for the first time, head on online, and win a match because people are too prepared for that. The game is more fun if the computer isn’t cheating you out of hard-earned wins, and playing with people does more to show there’s potential in this direction for the series than any other part of the game.
"The racing elements don’t make the same kind of splash as the original series. "
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What you’ll get out of Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam really depends on what you go in expecting. If you’re ready for some moderately fun downhill races with some extremely questionable A.I. then you’ll probably be satisfied with the single-player product, but the real draw here is the online multiplayer mode — the races aren’t any different, but at least they’re more fun without the A.I. cheating you at every turn. While Downhill Jam doesn’t quite rejuvenate the Tony Hawk license, it shows that unique ideas aren’t completely out of the question when it comes to the Birdman’s games.
