Reviews// Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam - SECOND OPINION

This game was reviewed by SPOnG already, and not particularly favourably. As the resident skater I've been playing it since it arrived in our office.

Downhill Jam is a ridiculous game. It takes nothing from the world of Downhill Skating, (also called Speedboarding), which is a gritty sport full of tough men. While it is photogenic, it's a sport of fighting for lines, of not giving ground while not purposefully cutting up or shutting out a competitor; it's strategic and cerebral, while also being bone-breakingly fast and dangerous. The stars of the sport have not achieved anything like the fame and riches they deserve. It would also make a terrible video game.

On the other hand, the combination of street, ramp and pool skating makes for a flamboyant sport. It features in the X-Games (as does Speedboarding), gets into soft-drink commercials, and onto MTV. The moves are incredible to watch, and the participants are pretty and colourful. It makes a superb video game.

So Activision, holder of the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise, has decided to combine the two sports to try and inflict a little of the latter's glamour on the former. Mistake.

Tony Hawk has never ridden downhill. The flip and grab tricks he specialises in are not appropriate to the sport in any way. Downhill is about keeping the wheels on the ground for traction and speed.

The Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam game is not about downhill skateboarding in any way. It's about skateboarding downhill. The game requires you to use the kind tricks you are familiar with from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/Project 8 to build up a boost gauge. When the boost gauge is full, you can shake the Wii Remote, which for the purposes of the game you hold horizontally – D-Pad at the left hand end - to get a speed boost.

The Wii Remote horizontal paradigm is upheld consistently from the minute you press Start on the Wii game page. Suddenly, the D-Pad moves menu items up and down by using the (traditional) left and right and vice versa. So, swing the Wii Remote around and get ready to rumble. That rumble, as in the sound urethane wheels make on tarmac, not rumble as in fight behind the bikesheds.

The first part of the game is a tutorial, and it is during this that you quickly realise that things aren't as you expect. The first thing you do is ride down a hill and over a ramp. Note: There are no ramps in real downhill skating.

Next you are shown how to Ollie. Note: Real downhillers don't ollie.

Then do rail slides. Note: Real downhillers don't do rail slides.

The tutorial continues to show you how to do flip and grab tricks - whoa, this really is like a Tony Hawk's game now, and nothing like a downhill game.

Then it shows you how to "clobber" pedestrians. Remember kids, Skateboarding is not a crime - Aggravated Assault is.

On successful completion of the tutorial you get set free on the streets of Edinburgh (try and "clobber" as many leafleters as possible, especially if they are trying to convince you to see experimental theatre), San Francisco and Hong Kong, and the game begins in earnest.

Unsurprisingly the aim of THDJ is to try and get from A (for ‘Altitude’) to B (for ‘Bottom of the hill’) in the shortest possible time. Just pointing downhill, adopting an aerodynamic stance and finding the best line - exactly what downhill skaters do - will not suffice. At the start of the race, instead of pumping for Jesus (that's pushing off as quickly as possible - not masturbating for the Lord!) you drop in from a quarter pipe so high Danny Way would think twice before riding it, and even then it would be to do some thing like jump over the Empire State Building.