Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland delivers all the action-packed skating gameplay you can handle--best of all, you won't have to sacrifice your body to do so.

Since 1999, there have been few video game franchises as prolific as the Tony Hawk series, from its Pro Skater beginnings to last year's THUG 2. And with each iteration, developer Neversoft finds a way to create a great game that keeps the masses coming back for more. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland continues the trend set by its predecessors by providing a rich gaming experience that will keep the controller glued to your hand until the break of dawn.

Skate Punks
The latest Hawk title takes over where the THUG series left off. Basically, the best way to describe THAW is that it's an amalgam of the previous two THUG games as it combines elements of those games that made them fun and unique. On the one foot, there's the familiar Story Mode, which places you in the shoes of a runaway skate punk who is looking for a little excitement, and hopes to find it while hooking up with a band of skating rogues in Los Angeles; and when it's all said and done, the fruits of your skating labor culminate into the creation of one gigantic skate park. Neversoft also added a little gameplay variety by enabling you to test your skills on a BMX bike, which provides a little much needed respite from the standard gameplay. On the other, there's the extensive list of features, such as Classic mode, multiplayer games, and online play that have made their way into the game.

The great thing about THAW, or any of the sequels before it, is that the tried-and-true gameplay that made the series such a hit has remained in tact. As with any extreme sports game featuring a board, the controls are what make or break the game, and the latest Hawk extravaganza certainly has that area dialed. In addition to the silky smooth response from the analog stick, all the requisite grab, flip, grind, and flatland tricks are accounted for. Additionally, Neversoft has incorporated a few new techniques--such as the Bert slide and manual stall--that make an already deep trick set even deeper.

Another hallmark of the superb Hawk games of the past have been their vast skating environments. It should come as no surprise that THAW is well endowed with generously sized, multilayered domains for which to carry out all your skating aggression--half-pipes, quarter-pipes, pools, wires, rails, and so much more are in abundant supply. Plus, you can create your own park to test your skating mettle, if you grow tired of the available locales. To round out the thrash-fest, THAW contains some of the hottest tunes--current and retro--to which to skate.

To Live and Thrash In L.A.
When you get down to the bolts and bearings, THAW delivers the type of skating experience that fans of the franchise have come to expect. And while it may seem like one Hawk is like the other, don't take that to heart. Once you plug in, everything else will cease to exist.

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