A Skatey game...and a damn good one.
My how the times have changed.
Now skateboarders are revered and thought of as role models. They make incredible amounts of money. They're famous. And some even have video games named after them. Like this one. Tony Hawk's proving ground.
Now I haven't played many skatey games...and those I did play were always a little...meh. And this one should really be no different. It has all the usual, typical, cliche stuffs that all skate games have. You try to collect things. You do tricks. You talk to professionals and they get you to do unspeakable acts for money....all of that is in this game. But for some reason, it feels a little...funner than usual (is "funner" a word?...i guess chances are if you are reading this review, you don't know either...you skateboard punks).
Maybe it's the amount of skater-creater options available. You can pick from dozens of pre-made characters...or create your own. You can even paint your own design on your clothes and deck! How cool is that?
Or maybe it's the incredible amount of tricks you can perform...and how it actually feels GOOD to pull them off. I could play on the half pipe for hours, or do rail tricks all day and not get bored.
It could be the levels. You play on the east coast in some of the most despised, rundown, and forgotten post-industrial cities in the U.S.A....cities like Baltimore. And they look great! And not only that, but they feel great. I mean, I got to skateboard through a friggin museum and on a space shuttle! Take that America!
Maybe it's just the general attitude of the game. It feels so fun and devil-may-care and graffiti-esque. It really does an excellent job of capturing the culture of skateboarding. From the presentation and overall theme of the game right down to every song in the soundtrack.
And what is really amazing is all the stuff they fit onto the little cartridge for the DS. It's just incredible the sheer amount of stuff they put in this game! Tons of bonuses to unlock, your own skatepark, and your own pad that you can slowly fill up with junk! It's just a huge game.
So overall, the game does what any other skating game does...but it does it really well with a hefty dose of fun, uniqueness, and attitude....basically everything a game like this SHOULD have, but very few actually do. I guess the only thing really missing from the game is the option to have the skaters spit on pedestrians, rob citizens, and perform terrible acts of sexual aggression on innocents.....
Maybe in the next game....