Tony Hawk returns with another excellent game (Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (PS2))

Member Name: T-virus

Product:	Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (PS2)
Date:	17/04/06 (3241 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No loading screens, lots of unlockables and excellent gameplay

Disadvantages: BMX feature was laking, there's rap music on it !

Game title: Tony Hawks American Wasteland
Format: PS2
Genre: Extreme sports/skateboarding
Certificate: 16+
Contains: Mild violence, mild language and a bit of blood
Developed by: Neversoft
Published by: Activision
Players: 1 or 2 players
Memory card usage: 134KB minimum
Other information: Network adaptor (Ethernet) compatible 2 - 8 players, Enhanced with Eye Toy USB camera

Well Tony Hawks American Wasteland which I will be calling THAW from now on is the 7th game in the series. It all started way back on the PS1 with the first in the series Tony Hawks Pro Skater. Tony Hawk was just making it big or (bigger if you like) on the skating scene by landing the first 900 degree spin air trick. This spun off the contract to make a game with his name on it. I came across this game from a friend when I first started skating. The typical process of the earlier Hawk games was to either choose a pro or create your own skater and clear all challenges on all the levels. This would lead to movies, extra skaters and cheats to be unlocked. Tony Hawks Pro Skater was an excellent first game, to kick start the series. The game was a massive success and it spun off Tony Hawks 2, 3, 4 Underground, Underground 2 and now by far the greatest, Tony Hawks American Wasteland. The Hawk games have come on far since the first, from just completing goals to complex storylines and updated features. The most obvious change from the last game is the no loading screens on the story mode. Instead of waiting for the next level to load up, it is all one big city; you can roam about L.A. as you please.

Well the story mode as it suggests has a story to it. So here is the storyline.

The storyline: you play as one of a possible 5 characters. They all have the same ambition to make it big as a pro skater and the only place to do it is to go where it all began, L.A.
The character you choose does not have a name so I will be referring to the character as char which is short for character. Char is sick of being told what to do, he is sick of his parents telling him that he is failing in school, life and that all he cares about is his skateboard, so char sets off for L.A. to try and make something of him self and prove everyone wrong. After arriving in L.A. he is beaten up and mugged and told that he does not belong here. He looks up only to meet a girl named Mindy. She informs him where he is going wrong and helps him to get a decent haircut, decent cloths and introduces him to other skaters. You later find out that Mindy is trying to get her comic published called American Wasteland. Later on he wins his stuff back from the mugger and finds out that Mindy's comic is about a secret place called the skate ranch, owned by Iggy Van San. Before he can get access to the skate ranch he must earn respect from its members Boon, Useless Dave and Murphy. After Earning there respect by busting there best tricks, you gain access to the skate ranch and get to meet the legend Iggy Van San. Mindy decides that the skate ranch needs a make over; with just a mini ramp the ranch needs more. So your mission now is to rip up the city and bring back pieces for the ranch and in the end, impress the socks off Iggy Van San.

Difficulty levels: there are 4 different difficulty levels to choose from on THAW. There are the following…

-Easy - great for beginners, the physics are a little easier and you don't fall off your bored as easily. Also the goals and challenges are not as challenging as the other difficulty levels.

-Normal - the normal difficulty is good for gamers who know the game but are not that familiar with it. Goals are a tiny bit more challenging than Easy and the physics are a little more accurate.

-Hard - one for experienced Hawk gamers. The goals get a lot more challenging and there is no room for mistakes when landing tricks.

-Sick - well this one is for hardcore Hawk gamers who know the game like the back of there hand. The goals are extremely challenging and longer. The physics are as accurate as you can get, you must land your tricks perfectly or you will end up eating tarmac.

If you are just starting to get familiar with THAW then I would suggest either Easy or Normal settings. Once you have gained some skill and confidence give the other ones ago, after all to unlock all of the extras you must complete story and classic modes on all difficulty levels.

Graphics: the graphics for THAW are excellent, the trick action is very realistic and the levels are lush. The cut scene animations also flow well, from characters walking to them skating. Neversoft have used every inch of the PS2 power and have got close to the real thing. The created characters in the early games looked a bit out of place to the pro skater's graphic wise, now they look just as realistic as the pro skaters. I have to say that the graphics are so close to real thing and give the game an enhanced feel to the previous games.

Sound: well the sound is as always with Hawk games excellent and full of great music. Music includes my chemical romance, fall out boy, taking back Sunday mike v and the rats, public enemy, motley crew, green day, mastodon and many, many more covering genres like punk, heavy metal and rap. You can also choose which tracks or genre you would like to have played while you skate. So if you don't like rap for example you can turn all the rap tracks off just by selecting rap off.

New features to THAW: there are many new features to THAW including…

The skate ranch: the skate ranch is one of many new editions to THAW. The ranch starts off pretty dull and boring with just a mini ramp. On your quest through the story mode, you will destroy and steel pieces of L.A. and take them back to the ranch to add to the park. Pieces include anything from signs, railings, bits of buildings and even the Hollywood sign. Every time you obtain a new piece it is added to the park making the ranch even bigger.

Oldskool tricks: yes they are back and as bad as ever. Neversoft have decided to include oldskool tricks to THAW. These include burley slides, pressure flips, stalls and all new modification tricks. Modification tricks are doing one trick and pressing a certain button/s to link it to another. You can now do these modifications on manual tricks, grind tricks, lip tricks, stall tricks and the all new Natas spin.

BMX: yes you can now choose board or bike, a completely new feature to THAW. With the other Neversoft project Mat Hoffman pro BMX, Neversoft have merged the two great games into one. Though I was rather disappointed with the BMX side of it, the fact that all the BMX selection has in the story mode is the ability to earn cash for you to buy stuff, but that is all.

No loading screens: now there are no loading screens but please do not take this as literal as it states. The no loading screens suggestion is only available for the story mode. In the last game THUG 2, you had to wait for the next level to load up before you could skate in it, in THAW you can just travel to your next destination within L.A. when it becomes available. I think this is a very handy feature for the story mode, as you can go back to previous areas if you have not completed all of the goals, gaps or challenges, so you don't have to wait to do this.

Earning cash and shopping: you can now shop and earn cash in THAW. Instead of quitting the story mode and going to the change character screen to edit your characters appearance, you can now do it by simply hopping off your bored and walking into your desired shop. Shops include…

-Skate shop: you can buy boards, pads, shoes, grip tape and change the colour of your wheels, you can also take stat challenges here

-Cloths shop: you can buy pants and tops here

-Accessories shop: here you can buy bags, watches and wrist bands, sunglasses and hats

-Barber shop: here you can change your hair style and facial hair style

-Tattoo parlour: here you can get a tattoo

All of these will cost you your hard earned cash but there are 3 ways to earn it, just look for the characters dotted around L.A. with the dollar sign above there head, they are as follows…

- Challenges from the tramps: the tramps will set you challenges to complete which will lead to cash on completion

- BMX challenges: the legend Rick Thorn will set you BMX challenges which will earn you cash on completion

- Oil rig worker challenges: well these are the same as the tramp challenges; I think they have just changed it due to the fact that I doubt you would find a tramp on an oil rig. Again cash is available for completing the challenges.

- Graffiti challenges - you can either help the graffiti artist with his art to earn yourself some cash or you can create your own graphic.

The controls: if you are not used to the Tony Hawk games, the controls can be a bit daunting at first. The basic controls are as follows…

-X button - Ollie, hold for higher Ollie
-X button + Circle button + any direction - Grab tricks
-X button + Square button + any direction - flip tricks
-X button + Triangle + any direction - Grind tricks
-X button + Triangle at the top of a ramp + any direction - lip tricks
-Up + down and down + up - manual
-R2 or L2 before landing an air trick - revert
-Up + X button - no comply (higher Ollie variation)
-Up + up + X button - Boneless (even higher Ollie variation)

So there are the basic controls which you will learn quite quickly and use the most often. Here are some of the more advanced controls which will pop up in some challenges from time to time…

-L3 - focus mode (slow motion)
-L2 + X + square + any direction - pressure flips
-L2 - switches to Nollie stance or Fackie stance when riding backwards
-R2 - switches ride stance
-X + up at 45 degree angle at a wall - wall ride
-Down + X and X strait at wall - wallplant and sticker slap

There are many more controls to learn in the game including off board controls, flatland, tantrums, BMX etc. there are far too many to list, the manual lists all of the controls in the game and how to do them. I am used to the Tony hawk games so I found the controls easy as I new most of them from previous games. They may look daunting but you will pick them up very quickly and will find yourself ripping up those big combos in no time.

Game modes: on the start screen you will find yourself with many game modes to choose from. I will now list the different modes and explain what's involved in them…

-Story mode - this is where the main game is, here you can unlock the levels for other modes, build up your stats for your chosen skater, unlock new skaters, unlock cheats and movies and build up the skate ranch with more pieces.

-Classic mode - this is the old game mode that featured in Tony Hawks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Basically you will have 10 goals to complete within a time limit, if you don't get all of them the first time don't worry, you can re-play the level and go for the ones you missed. When you complete a minimum of 5 goals on a level, the next one will become available for you to complete and will also become available to skate on in other modes. The previous games THUG and THUG 2 had the classic mode too but new to THAW is the co-op classic mode. Yes you can now grab a friend to play with you who can help you complete the more difficult goals.


-High score/free skate - here you can practice your skating skills with no time limit or challenges to do. To gain a free run on all levels you must unlock them on story mode and classic mode. If you are feeling up to it you can also start a high score run, you have 2 minutes to beat the top score. This is great practice for some of the challenges where you need to achieve a certain score.


-2 player - well here is the best section I think, the 2 player mode. Grab a friend and battle each other in 2 player games like…
-Trick attack
-Graffiti
-Score challenge
-Combo mambo
-Slap
-Pot o' gold
-King of the hill
-Scavenger hunt
-Fire fight
-Horse

Hours and hours of fun with a friend and you can also brush up on your skating skills too.

-Online mode - here you can take your gaming skills to the rest of the world via Ethernet connection. I don't know much about the online mode as I have not used it yet, but I do know that there are 3 other multiplayer modes Capture the flag, Elimiskate and Goal attack.

-Create-a-mode - well here you can get creative, there are many things you create here including…

-Create-a-skater - here you can create your own character. You can change there appearance and accessories. If you have access to an Eyetoy you can upload a picture of your face and have your face on your character. You can use your character for all modes accept story mode.

-Create-a-graphic - here you can create your very own graffiti tag for you character. You can use this graphic in levels by pressing triangle while off your bored. Again it can be used in all modes accept story mode.

-Create-a-park - here you can re-create your dream skate park. There are many things you can choose from including ramps, buildings, rails, fun boxes, half pipes etc the things you can out into your park are endless and you can skate in it on free skate and 2 player modes after you have saved it.

-Create-a-trick - here you can create your very own trick and assign it to your character. In the previous games THUG and THUG 2 you could only create flip and grab tricks, now in THAW you can create manual and grind tricks as well as flip and grab tricks. You can add spins, flips, grabs, and special actions to your tricks.

-THAW does have an online mode available but I have not used yet so do not know about it.

-Options: in here you can set the sound to your desired volume, load and save game, change game settings, view progress, view unlockables, view high scores and watch movies that you can unlock by playing and completing the game. There is also a cheat code input screen if you can find the cheat codes, I'm sure there are many on the internet, after all they have given you the option to cheat so why not do it but do try and complete the game at least once before you do.

Game play: well I thought the game play was excellent. The controls are daunting at first but you pick them up very quickly. The graphics are excellent and the trick actions are very realistic. The music is ace, ranging from punk, heavy metal and rap. You can also select which tracks to be played if you prefer any of the genres or particular songs. The story line to the main adventure is both funny and well thought out, the twists and turns in the storyline is unexpected and keeps you playing. There is plenty to unlock for your efforts and the new features to THAW are excellent and a nice change. Overall I would recommend this game to anyone, its fun, hilarious and will keep you playing for a long time to come.

Extras: there are plenty of extras to be had in THAW. You will have to complete the story mode on all difficulty levels, with all goals complete and gaps found, you also must complete classic mode on all difficulty levels with all challenges complete to obtain all the extras available. There are a total of 24 secret characters to unlock in the game, 4 movies and a load of cheats to use in the game. Should keep you busy for a while.

Graphics 10/10
Sound 10/10
Game play 9/10
Longetivity 10/10
Over all 39/40


Where to find: well this game is fairly new so you can pick this game up from any leading game store. Expect to pay around £20 for it; I got it when it first came out and £30 for it. You maybe able to get it cheaper on Ebay or online shopping sites like play or Amazon.

Here are some useful links for you to cheek out for more information…

www.th-american-wasteland.com
www.activision.com
www.play.com
www.amazon.com
www.game.com
www.ebay.com

Well hope you do give this game ago and I can safely say that it is worth the money you will part with. Enjoy!

Thanks for the read
T-virus aka James

Summary: all i can say is this game is funny, extremely fun and a top class game!