User Reviews (1 - 11 of 18)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

when is it comin out!!!!!!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 9
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I called a bunch of times they said it comes out nov15 but still nothi anyway this game looks really cool and im gettin it u should to because u can play with anyone in the world using the wifi feature.

swweeet!!!!!! game!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

skateing with your friends wat the hell is better then thats or mario kart i do admit that is a little better then this graphic wise but still highly recoment if u own underground 2 or all the other just amagine it like thats
ty

An actuall review with very few typos.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I cant be to trusted, because i just got this today and have never previously played a tony hawk game, but from what i have [layed today i can say this much, the gameplay is absolutely wonderful, the graphics are AMAZING for a DS game (the screenshots DONT do it justice, you have to see it in motion.)
the soundtrack isnt just blips and bloops but real songs by real bands..wow..its an amazing peice of technologie with huge areas to scate through..i would buy this is you have ot havent played the other tony hawk games.

i hate my little brother

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 32
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i dont know if the game is good or not my little brother lost the game he was playing it in the front yare by the sewer and when he came back in it was gone.

Highly Addictive Skating Fun :P

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (THAS) is one of the best ( if not the best ) Tony Hawk games in the series. THAS has a different style graphics than any other Tony Hawk game; cell-shading. Cell-shading is a unique kind of graphic that looks like a cartoon. You either like this style or hate it, and I love it. Here is my review.

Graphics: 4.5/5. I love these graphics. They are cartoony and take on a new look for the Tony Hawk series. They are bright, nice, sharp, colorful, and just unique. Not very many games have this style. ( Jet Grind Radio, XIII, Killer 7, are some of the few. ) The only reason I don't give this a five is because there are occasional blurs in the graphics.

Sound: 4.5/5. The sound sounds very similar to the console versions. The soundtrack has songs from Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and that's great, but it doesn't really include my favorites. The soundtrack features about 10-15 songs ( I think. ) and some are good, some aren't. The voice acting, the sound of metal-on-metal grinding, and the landing of wheels on pavement. The sound is great.

Control: 4.5/5. If you played the PS2 version of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, you will be familiar with these controls. ( Or if you've played any Tony Hawk game for that matter. ) Very easy to get used to, although there are occasional camera angle problems, and in replays, the camera angles are so bad you can sometimes not see yourself in the replay.

Fun: 5/5. Best DS game of the year next to Mario Kart DS in my opinion. This was a total stunner; I never expected Tony Hawk to be on the DS; and if it did, I would have NEVER expected it to be any good. Although the Wi-Fi isn't nearly as good as I'd hope, it's still okay. You will be beating highscores as much as you can as long as you can until you're hands cramp up. Great graphics, great sound, great controls, fantastic fun... all the elements you need for a great game are right here. Although the story mode is very easy ( and classic mode ) it is still an amazingly good game. Once you pick this game up, you won't put it down.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game was AWESOME!!!! It is like the xbox version! Its got Green Day in one of the songs. Personolise your skater, skateboard, and lots of levels. I would recomend this to anyone!

PERFECT!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was really fun and it worked great. I played it for hours and hours and never got tired of it. The graphics are great its the best graphics ive ever seen on a hand-held game system. So overall 5 stars no proplems. This game was PERFECT!!!

Great fun in a small package

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: January 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, the "plot" of the story mode is utter drivel. However, don't let that get in the way of some solid gameplay. The true fun of htis game, after beating it in single mode will be had online (of course). Its the best portable version of a tony hawk game yet.

Also worth noting: this has some of the best sound on a DS game. They have complete songs from a number of current rock acts, and they all sound pretty darn good.

A good game,though not exactly what I expected!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for the DS is really just an OK game for me.The story was too simple for my taste probably because I've been playing Tony Hawk games for years.I loved Tony Hawk's Underground 2,and all the THPS games,but unfortunately,I do not adore Tony Hawk's American Sk8land the same way I did with the past Tony Hawk games.In rookie and pro mode storymode was quite easy to complete,even without "kid" mode on.The goals were very easy to beat and even if you decide what pieces to put into your skatepark,you do not have full control over the look of the park overall.Though the warehouse(what your skatepark is called)is undeniably large and a great place to skate in,it turns out gray and dull,something that I was not pleased with.

And as far as thorough customization,meaning clothes,decks,and graffiti,the game didn't do a good job either.Unlike THUG2,in this game,you have extremely minimal control over your characters looks.Yes,you do choose your skaters hairstyle and clothes,but you choose from only a few styles and colors.You can't even choose the shoes.Although this aspect is not the game itself,its nice to have to choice of things,you know what I mean?This missing component was a major dissappointment for me.

But this game doesn't dissappoint me entirely.I enjoyed skating in all seven levels,levels that were pretty large and detailed.In the console version of this game,the levels are maintained in the DS,so the look of the game isn't that different.Anyways,with kid mode on,you can easily pulls off tricks,including the 900,a trick that was considered a special in pat console games.Having the freedom to skate and perform tricks to your liking was an aspect of the game that I really enjoyed.The control are pretty simple too.Doing tricks that would be hard to perform on the console version(for some,including myself),such as handstands,other manuals(pogos,etc.)and backflips are much easier to control.This game also allows you to perform specials from the touch screen.You simply press an icon and a special is immediately performed.There's a total of nine specials that can be performed from the touch screen that require no controls at all.As far as the graphics,the cel-shaded animated of the game is very unique and refreshing.A creative though not superb alternative to 3D animation,cel-shading took a bit of time for my eyes to get used to.But after a while though,I became accustomed to it,and I stopped caring about the graphics so much.Cel-shading is a very cool type of graphic for this game overall.The soundtrack is also very good though a bit short.The playlist features some great songs and even one that I've heard from another skateboarding game I've played,Grind Session to be exact.The sound quality is pretty clear for the DS as well,it was impressive might I say!!!

So all in all,I found Tony Hawk's American Sk8land to be an enjoyable though not thorough game.The missing aspects of the game were dissapointing,but there are enough pros to outnumber the cons.This game is compatible with Nintendo wi-fi as well,though only two players,something I dislike greatly.But overall,this is a fun,easy,and casual game.It's a fun game that has a fair story mode but fierce classic mode.Something for every kind of Tony Hawk fan,new and old.I guess I could say I would recommend this game if you're a Tony Hawk fan as well as a newbie to skateboarding games.The DS offers a unique take on the console version game that does fail to include certain features,but those missing aspects don't ruin the game entirely,if at all to others.

Maybe it rubbed me the wrong way

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When Activision released Tony Hawk's Underground 2 on the Game Boy Advance, I reeled in disgust at how there weren't any real upgrades to the isometric viewpoint or the erratic control scheme or the aged visuals. I was even more disgusted that they spent so much more time not only revamping the console version for the PlayStation Portable version, but also adding additional stuff to the game. While the PSP version was indeed a fantastic game, I wondered when a Nintendo handheld would receive a fair version of the console skateboarding franchise. With Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for the Nintendo DS, of course.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land takes some of the best elements of the console edition (American Wasteland) and transforms them into an optimized DS experience. Almost all of the console levels return to the DS game, though they have been slightly altered to accommodate the limited buttons of the DS. Rather than cram several moves into the DS's six buttons, Vicarious Visions took the series back to its roots and removed the ability to jump off of the board and walk around. They kept some of the other features, like flatland tricks and Focus Mode. They even kept graffiti in the game, though it's only used a few times during the Story mode. While it's not perfect and there are indeed some flaws, Tony Hawk fans that own a DS now have something to call their own and be proud of.

Speaking of the Story mode, once again it's the bane of Tony Hawk's existence. American Wasteland held gamers' hands and took them through a big, long training mode. American Sk8land isn't very different. Near the end of the game, some of the goals are still asking for easy combos, low point totals and easy gaps. What happened to the challenge? I know that it's possible for an experienced player to score millions of points, I'm not too shabby at this game myself, but seriously, why should I even care if the goals are asking me to score 50,000 points in two minutes? I can do it with my eyes closed. I wouldn't be so hard on the game if it didn't teach me how to manual or grind every level; with all of that training, shouldn't I easily be able to score more than 50,000 points in two minutes? C'mon guys, give us a challenge. The Story mode isn't the only one available. Classic Mode returns as well, but even it's too easy. The two-minute runs are almost too much time to collect SKATE letters that are usually nearby each other and COMBO letters that practically take your skater in a straight, easy line.

Though I'm not impressed by the actual game modes, the gameplay is as good as ever. Despite the small size of the DS's buttons (which was a problem for my larger-sized fingers), it's still pretty easy to bust out combos. I noticed a little lag time in-between my manual commands and the skater on-screen actually performing the trick, but other than that, there isn't really a problem. Vicarious Visions slightly changed the rate at which your skater spins, so aligning yourself before landing a trick is a little harder than before, but these small changes don't cause much of a problem when they're implemented into the normal feeling of the game.

What is really nice about Tony Hawk's American Sk8land is what you can see just from looking at screenshots or online videos the graphics. The graphic style is that of a cartoon or a comic book. It's cel-shaded, colorful stuff that takes advantage of the DS's capabilities. The animation is spot-on although most of the moves have been re-used from the earlier PSX/N64 games. Really, it's impressive that Vicarious Visions managed to make this game look so great in motion. The soundtrack won't get a single praise from me--it's easily the worst in the entire series, but it is impressive that they crammed a few songs onto the DS cart. Similarly, there is a lot of spoken dialogue, but most of it (especially Mindy's voice) tore my ears out and spat on them. All I can say is that if a voice actor as bad as Mindy's is ever put into a videogame, I'll never buy or play a game from that developer again. It's unfair that my ear drums should have to bleed like that.

So it has good controls, it's got pretty graphics and it's got great old-school gameplay that any Tony Hawk fan should be able to enjoy. The only thing that makes Sk8land a slight disappointment is its gameplay modes. They're too easy, too generic and too boring. Vicarious Visions (and in the console version's case, Neversoft) should really go back to the drawing board and make this skateboarding game worth my time for the next version. I'm getting pretty tired of being asked to collect someone's lost shoes. I want fun, I want innovation, and for the love of God I don't ever want Mindy again. For those of you who want a good Tony Hawk handheld game, check this out. I mean, it is at least a dozen times better than the isometric GBA games. Otherwise, it might be wise to wait for another Hawk game to skate around.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions