Game Review (Tony Hawk's American Sk8land - DS)

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.

8.6/10