Cons: The concept falls flat; weak AI; uninspired course design
The Bottom Line: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam proves that deviating from a tried-and-true formula is a risky proposition... and that downhill racing doesn't gel with the traditional Tony Hawk style of play.
offspringer's Full Review: Tony Hawk''s Downhill Jam for DS
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam marks a significant departure for the long-running skateboarding series from what gamers have become rather accustomed to-- for better or for worse-- since Tony Hawk's Pro Skater debuted on the PlayStation console some seven years ago. While the basic (and addictive) trick system is still intact, Downhill Jam attempts to integrate tricks into a downhill racing-based game... and the final product is disappointing, at best.
The best way to describe the formula behind Downhill Jam is that Vicarious Visions, the game's development team, used Electronic Arts' SSX as a model. The basic idea is that performing tricks while racing to the finish line provides boost power, which can be used to overtake opponents or widen a lead. Unfortunately, this idea is way out of the franchise's original element and the execution simply falls flat.
It certainly doesn't help that Downhill Jam's course design is rather uninspired. Despite the fact that the courses are set in real-life locales, the layouts aren't always conducive to trick lines. The urge to "go big", like has been the case in most every other Tony Hawk title to date, just doesn't exist in Downhill Jam.
In order to try and stay varied, there are several different types of challenges that players will face when playing Downhill Jam solo. Aside from downhill racing, there are item collection (or destruction) missions, missions that require specific tricks, and style challenges, which require players to try and score well without crashing. As players progress, new skaters become available... but there's no real replay value once the single-player mode is completed. All of these challenges take place in the downhill racing scheme and cannot capture the level of fun or addictiveness that we've seen in past games. What's worse is that, while racing, the artificial intelligence rarely provides a challenge... and since the game isn't much fun to begin with, taking it online may provide only a brief period of enjoyment.
Whereas Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land was a technical achievement on many levels for the Nintendo DS, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam does very little to build on that achievement. The visuals essentially mirror what was seen in American Sk8Land, with a decidedly cartoon-ish look to the characters and smooth animations. The big problem here is that there's no real sense of speed to be seen, which hurts the perception of downhill racing. Aside from blowing past your opponents with boost, you'd tend to think that you'd be going a little faster-- but that perception is never realized.
Downhill Jam's high point is the game's sound. Although the soundtrack for this game is considerably worse than in American Sk8Land, the music consists of licensed tracks rather than generic background music. The game also has a fair amount of voice samples, which is impressive when you factor in the storage medium. The sound compression makes the sound a bit tinny, but the sheer content outweighs what most other DS game developers have managed to add to their products.
At the end of the day, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is a failed experiment. While it's probably true that converting Tony Hawk's Project 8 to the Nintendo DS might be a stretch, this side project really hits a wall early. With so much success for the Tony Hawk games over the years, it's mildly surprising that Activision greenlighted such an "out of the box" project as this. It's one thing to have a game deviate from the norm, if only for a change of pace... but don't break what isn't broken.
If you haven't already, buy Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land instead. Not only is that game significantly better than Downhill Jam, but it's also considerably less expensive.
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