Neversoft has been producing skateboard games featuring Tony Hawk and friends (and rivals) for quite some time now, and after moving through the Pro Skater line and the Underground series, the time has come for the latest effort, American Wasteland. Wasteland thankfully drops the immature toilet humor and general jackassery of last year’s Underground 2 and instead focuses on becoming the best skater in urban California. In addition the Neversoft team has brought back the famed Classic Mode, plus the usual bells and whistles one expects from the Tony Hawk brand.

Features

• The latest installment of the Tony Hawk series
  
• Choose a character and take them to the top of the skating world
  
• Learn new moves and perform combos to complete objectives
  
• No loading screens during Story Mode play
  
• Familiar Classic Mode returns
  
• Create your own characters, skate parks, decals, and so on
  

Once Upon A Time...
Wasteland’s main draw is the Story Mode in which players choose a character that, with enough hard work and training, could become the next big skateboarding sensation. Fresh off the bus from the American Midwest, our hero is immediately attacked by the local welcome wagon and robbed of his belongings (except his skateboard, of course). Lucky for him a local girl by the name of Mindy takes pity on him and offers to help take him to the top. After getting a whole new look in which players are required to change the character’s hairstyle, clothes, and overall appearance, Mindy takes our hero to see some of the local talented skaters for a series of training missions. It is in these missions that the game teaches players the various complex skate moves one by one. Training is fairly straightforward, requiring players to duplicate a move within the short time limit. After completing enough basic training Mindy leads our hero to the punks that stole his suitcase, resulting in a duel for control of the belongings. This leads into the main type of objective in the game.

Some characters in the game will challenge our hero. Typically these challenges involve both characters taking to the skate ramp for a minute or two in order to try and outskate the other. The idea is to make good use of all those tricks and moves taught during the training missions, as each successful move is worth points that are tallied in the corner of the screen. Performing several tricks in a row counts as a combo and is worth many more points. Failing a trick and landing facedown on the ramp costs our hero all those points from the last attempted combo. When time is up whichever character has the most points wins the duel. In the case of the suitcase thief, even in defeat he is a dishonorable jerkass. He steals the suitcase yet again and flees, meaning that our hero has to catch up to him and whack him in the head with the skateboard. The thief then drops the bag and escapes, but at least our hero has his toothbrush back.

Wasteland continues on in this manner. Learn new tricks, perform objectives, outskate rivals, and generally climb the ladder of life. Eventually Mindy will explain that the path to glory lies outside of the game’s first neighborhood environment, requiring our hero to open up a blocked path to a nearby section of town. In the past the game would have stopped here to load up the next level, but Wasteland takes a page from Metroid Prime and other such games of this generation by doing away with the loading screen and instead using a series of tunnels or other enclosed paths as a distraction while the game dumps the previous level from memory and calls up the next one. By the time the player reaches the end of the tunnel, the next level is ready. As more parts of the city are unlocked it can become time consuming to skate from one end of the world to the other. Thankfully there is a bus that can take characters from Point A to Point B in seconds. It’s really quite seamless.



For players who tire of skating there are now a few missions that require the use of a BMX bike. Bikes are scattered throughout the game and can be switched to easily enough. Controlling a bicycle is a different challenge than flipping around on a skateboard, but once again the game offers careful training to help players get the hang of pedaling around town. The bike portions of the game come off almost as an afterthought, but the point is that they are available and make for a nice break from skateboarding all night long.

Classically Familiar
American Wasteland brings back the fan-loved Classic Mode back for another round. This mode skips all of the storyline theatrics. Players choose from a pool of famous skaters, pick a city level, and then get two minutes to show off with moves and tricks. Each level has a series of goals to meet, such as earning a high score, collecting the familiar S-K-A-T-E levels, performing a specific combo in order to snag the C-O-M-B-O letters, and so on. After completing the required number of goals, the next city is unlocked for play, and so on. Thankfully, players need not complete all of the goals during a single skate session. The game saves completed goals, so it’s possible to complete two goals in one session, one in the next, and so on until the total is reached. That two minute time limit does put a damper on really going wild in the city, but it’s been around for a long time and is all part of Classic Mode’s tradition. Still, it can be limiting. Another returning aspect from past Tony Hawk games are the various creation modes in which players can create their own characters, skate parks, decals, and other such customizable things.