Reviewed: May 10, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Toys for Bob
SuperVillain Studios

Released: May 8, 2007
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Everyone

8
7
8
8
8.2

Supported Features:

Last year I got to play the handheld version of Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam on the NDS and the even-cooler motion-controlled version on the Nintendo Wii. Now, in an attempt to bring this game to the millions of PS2 gamers who arguably, made Tony the video game legend he is today, we get a ported version of Downhill Jam for the PS2.

The PS2 is really no different than the Wii version, at least from a core content and gameplay standpoint. A few things are missing but a lot has been added to fill in the gaps, and Downhill Jam remains firmly in the racing category, right alongside previous greats like SSX and Downhill Domination, so don't expect a lot of open worlds to explore or crazy trick combos. This is pure racing and pure speed and a whole lot of action.

The opening tutorial will get you up to speed on the basics; acceleration, ollies, grabs, and grinds. The trick list is extremely abbreviated for this game, allowing you only the barest essentials for pulling off tricks while maintaining optimum speed. As you keep pulling off tricks you will slowly fill up the meter (or Zone Bone) and once that meter is flaming you can trigger a speed boost either on the ground or while grinding.

Hawk fans might distress over the lack of a manual or revert, which makes it impossible to pull of lengthy combos. You must now rely on trick gates and multipliers. Pass through these to slow down time (Matrix style) and sneak in a few more tricks or hit a multiplier to boost your overall point total for the current trick or combo. Each character also has their own set of unique Special Tricks you call pull off. Just wait for the Special meter to start flashing then rip one of these extremely cool and insanely animated moves for major points.

But all of that is just the concept of playing Downhill Jam; how about the strategy? Obviously, you’ll want to keep that X button down for extra speed as much as possible. Tricks aren’t as important in pure racing, but they do earn you valuable boost power that can make the difference between a first and second place finish. You’ll want to mix up tricks and create unique combos for maximum points. Push pedestrians out of your way, jump over oncoming traffic, and backhand any opponents that get within striking range with the R1 and L1 buttons.

All of this exciting action comes at you in two primary modes of play, Downhill Challenge, and Multiplayer. Downhill Challenge is the main “story” mode of the game, not that there is much of a story. You can create a unique skater or play as any of the colorful cast of characters provided including Tony Hawk himself. My personal favorite is Tiffany, but I’ve always had a thing for trendy Valley Girls. “Bad Girl” Jynx is also a favorite as well as the Arnold Schwarzenegger wannabe, Gunnar.

Actually, I love them all, and you even get to appreciate them in many between-race cutscenes, even if you aren’t playing that particular character. There is a whole televised presentation element to the gameplay that features ESPN-style interviews with the various racers that reveals rivalries as well as interesting character traits for the entire cast.

Each character has their own skating style which translate into stats like speed, turning, balance, jump, and combat and you can develop these over the course of the game as you earn points you can assign to these abilities when you level-up. You’ll also unlock new characters, boards, tracks, and entire racing venues as you progress through the Downhill Challenge.

There are eight racing environments that span the globe. You’ll start off in San Francisco then move on to Hong Kong, Edinburgh, Rio, Machu Picchu, the Alps, and even a Mall. Each venue consists of an expanding tree of events that include pure racing or racing for the most trick points. If you aren’t good at one aspect of the game chances are there is another branch you can follow until you unlock the required amount of events to move on to the next country.

The tracks are massive, so massive in fact that many events only include a part of the track. When you do race on an entire track, top to bottom, it can take several minutes of intense racing to reach the bottom. Along the way are numerous shortcuts and secret paths that you’ll need to locate for the fastest finish times, and these often require advanced tricks like wall-rides or a slingshot from a powerslide to even reach.

Multiplayer is tight and certainly provides plenty of post-single-player racing entertainment for two racers using split-screen, but falls just a bit short of the excitement of the four-player races on the Wii. The designers must not have had that much faith that PS2 gamers own multi-taps. You can choose between Quick Play or create a unique Event Series comprised of a variety of race modes. Pick your venue or let the game randomly do that for you.

Technically, there are some texturing issues where objects will have either flat shading or no texture at all until you get really close. Then you have this weird pop-up. The same goes for objects, which can be really distressing when you are flying down the Streets of San Francisco and have a streetcar quite literally pop-up in front of you.

The FMV videos that preface many of the events are horribly compressed and look really bad. I can't really explain this since FMV has been done before and much better, even on the PS1. It should have at least looked as good as it did on the Wii.

The only negative to the soundtrack system was that during the game you never knew the track being played (like the EA Trax system), and when you go to create your custom play list you cannot preview the music, so you have to know what you like by title or artist. I ended up not even using this feature since I liked all the music.

The voice acting is fantastic, in a campy, fun sort of way. Each character has a very unique personality that is enhanced through clever dialogue and specific accents and delivery styles. I loved listening to the pre-race interviews, something I would normally skip right through on other games.

Sound effects are admittedly a bit weak, but only because there isn’t that much opportunity for a diverse array of sounds. There are plenty of breaking and smashing sounds as you skate through wood, glass, and other destructible objects. You have the constant sound of wheels on a variety of surfaces as well as the grinding sound.

The multiplayer adds a lot of extended value to the title and the PS2 offers three exclusive new multiplayer modes; Airtime, Mayhem, and Yard Sale, to round out the standard Race, Trick, Attack, and Slalom modes. While we're on the topic of PS2-exclusives, the designers have thrown in ten new PS2 events for a total of more than 100 events across the solo Downhill Jam mode, as well as three new characters, sponsors, and skating gear to tweak your character far beyond what you were able to do on the Wii.

To balance out these new additions the Ghost mode has been removed. This was a major part of the replay value for the Wii version, at least for me, in that it not only allowed you to race against your own best times, but you could also unlock ghosts recorded by the developers and try to beat the times of the true experts. The PS2 only allows you to set and record your best times in the high score list for each track.

For me, I loved the music, loved the visual style (despite the last-gen graphics), and really got into mastering all the ins and outs of the enormous tracks. The locations are unique, the tracks long and complex, and the fun factor and energy level is unparalleled with any other current PS2 title. Sure, I miss the subtle nuances that the Wii controller added, but for PS2 gamers, this is one downhill racer you won't want to miss.