Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

When I booted this game up, I was expecting a watered-down port of the console game. Boy, was I wrong. The game was entirely original.

The biggest innovation in this game is the cel-shaded graphic style. Thanks to the graphics being cel-shaded, the game presents a 3-D world without the blocky characters the Nintendo DS is infamous for.

The controlls, though, are ported straight from the Playstation 2 version. You use B to go fast, A to jump, Y to flip, and X to grind.

The soundtrack is kind of annoying with it being punk music and all. If you are a fan of hip-hop like me, you might want to turn the music down. If you like punk music then you might really enjoy the sountrack.

The story is kind of long with you having to unlock parts of Los Angeles such as Hollywood and East L.A. and build your skatepark with money you get from accomplishing tasks.

Overall, Tony Hawk's American Skateland is a game you must try if you have a Nintendo DS.

Tony hawk has always beeen a great franchise. Even if the Undergrounds were not quite what pro skaters were, all games were more than decent. Excluding the GBA games that is. Tony Hawk's American Sk8land is Activision's eighth original game in the series, and justly deserves the name.

The game takes place in the california city of LA. YOu start in Hollywood and can unlock really cool places like Beverly Hills, a VANS skatepark, heck, even Alcatraz gets an apearance in this game. The story mode is less than short, but is good enough for hawk newbies like meself.

The graphics our sheer beauty! The cel shading seems to be what both DS and Tony Hawk needs. Cel Shading is easier to do and more stylish, not to mention that DS has lower graphic qualities than the console counterparts. Cel Shading makes Ton Hawk's overall unrealistic tricks make more sense in cel shaded beauty. I may sound like a Cel Shading enthusiast but before this game came out I thought it was horrendous! Do not trust the screenshots, this game NEEDS to be seen in motion to be respected.

The sounds of skateboards are very realistic and deserve lots of respect. The music is basically a lot of punk rock. I only knew one of the songs played in the overworld, Holiday. That either means I am in dire need of new CD's or that this game is out of date musicwise. Either way I like "I like dirt".

The wi-fi multiplayer is wonderful, many modes of dukin' it out with people from wherever. It doesen't really get to the max'd worldwide like Mario Kart but it still has some good power. The different modes are all pretty good, though Horse probably should've showed up.

Overview:
Gameplay: once you get the hang of the simple control scheme this game becomes second nature! 9/10
Graphics: Beautiful Cel shading at its finest. 9.5/10
Sound: some people said the songs sounded odd on their DS. What were they talking about? 8/10
Fun:This game's strongest point. 10. Overall: 10