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Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (DS)
by DocDan3
Tony Hawk's American Sk8land is a pretty good game for the Nintendo DS as it's fun to play and contains a whole load of tricks to pull off like all the other Tony Hawk's games. It makes great use of the DS microphone and touch screen for controls and voice chat online.
The main story mode as cut scenes, which gives the game a ... bit of a story although it's pretty poor. You are making your own skate park and as you progress through the different levels such as Los Angeles and other skate parks, you earn money by completing challenges and you can buy more bits for your park.
The challenges within the story include many things such as pulling off tricks worth a certain amount of points, and gaining as many points in a given time limit as you can as well as collecting things within time limits or throughout the level. You go up to people within each level and speak to them to start challenges and you can free roam in your spare time, which is good.
You can create your own character and improve them as the game progresses as well as designing your own skateboard for them using paint and the touch screen to draw on designs. There are other modes where you can just freely skate around the levels to practice. There are so many tricks to pull off and you can do special tricks by tapping the special buttons on the lower touch screen once you start a trick. This will improve your score but you need to balance your skater using the directional pad to earn big points, which can be quite hard. You do get an opportunity to redeem lost points in this game by 'raging out' if you fall over after a trick. You hit three bars to stop them moving up and down and the more filled up they are, the more points you redeem back so it's not all bad news when you mess up.
The graphics are respectable as they are animated and of quite a good quality. The colours are vivid and everything has a sense of realism to it. The sound quality is ok but not that great. There are many commercial songs integrated into the game including my favourite, Holiday by Green Day, which adds a better feel to playing the game. The controls are great but it can be hard to keep your player balanced using the directional pad. Great use of the touch screen is used in the game and the microphone senses your voice when playing a series of small challenges online with players across the world. The online play isn't as popular as it used to be so it's actually hard to find a game, but it's a good feature. I wouldn't recommend this game as the replay value is low and it's not that fun unless you are a hardcore skater. You can buy it used and new for just £4.49 on amazon.co.uk, which is quite tempting.
Thanks for reading,
Dan ©
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Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (DS)
by blackviolets
I'm not your typical everyday rock goddess(!) Now we don't need to go into all the examples available as to why not, that would be mean but what surprised me was how much I enjoy playing this game. If you'd of told me a few years back that I would become addicted to a game involving pressing buttons in time to a song, well, I wouldn't ... of believed you. Simple as that really. On having a go on somebody elses DS though, I became sucked into the Guitar Hero franchise. Hell, it's going to be the only chance I have on playing a guitar at a top level.
Like all the other Guitar Hero games you will need the hand grip(the strap which holds your hand in the right position and where your playing buttons are). You can get this as part of a set for £17.98 from Amazon but if you already own the grip the game on its own will cost you £14.99.
The format is all very simple. When your chosen song is playing four different coloured notes will be appearing in random orders, each one coinciding with the four buttons on your hand grip . Using your little plastic plectrum you have to strum along on your screen at the same time as the notes, whilst pressing the correctly coloured buttons on the side of your DS. Making you play the lead portion of the song. So you know you've made lots of mistakes when the music either stops altogether or you get an awful clanging noise with every wrongly placed note you make.
In this version of the game there is a different selection of songs once again to pick from. Modern, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s and 1970s. So you should recognise a few of them dotting about. Especially when you have a bit of Bon Jovi, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters in there.
As in all the other versions you have the choice of playing them in easy, medium, hard and extreme. Personally I find that they are more fun and maybe a bit more frustrating when you play using the more difficult levels. When in the easy section it can be a bit dull when there isn't many notes to play.
There is also different modes to pick from
Single-Player mode: Where you can first make your band by giving it a name and then choosing your guitar and who is going to play it. With each song you complete you get money which you can use to buy different clothes or guitars for your band.
This is where the main part of the game is played. By choosing the Play Live Show you can pick where you want to play, the song, the difficulty rating and then you begin in your rock fest!
Guitar Duels: Dueling against the DS by causing distractions like flipping the screen around for confusion, setting their guitar on fire or making them sign autographs. They can also do this to you as well and it's the guitarist with the highest score after the song has finished who wins.
Quick Play: Just playing any of the songs you have unlocked to play without any other technicalities to deal with.
Practice: Practicing the songs, using different levels and being able to choose which parts of the songs you want to improve on.
Multiplayer: Where you can play against a living person who also owns the guitar hero game.
There is a wider choice of items to buy than other versions and the graphics have really improved from previous ones, from the clothes that are being worn to the audience in the crowd. The choice of music is also providing a good variety although in a few of the cases I haven't got a clue on what or who the band and song are.
I would suggest you didn't play this game for a long time without taking a break as your hand is held in the same position, unable to move all that well and is pretty constrained. Also your fingers do tend to get cramp which isn't really all that fun. Why you'd want to continue playing under that circumstance I don't know.
Especially when you choose the harder levels. You are having to move your fingers very quickly to keep up and it can hurt in some cases. When playing the songs you have the choice to play lead or rhythm/bass. You can't really hear it on bass mode although it is slightly easier which is a bit of a problem.
Overall this is a really good and I can't see it going anywhere for the time being. It's fun, addictive, you can play against other people and it's on a portable console so you're aren't constricted to certain environments.
I don't think it was worth the £30+ that people had to spend to get it hence the reason why I did hold off for a bit but it does kill a lengthy amount of time when you are bored.
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