Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

The first free-roaming Tony Hawk game.

NA release: 18th October 2005
EU release: 28th October 2005
JP release: N/A
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
NGC Magazine Score: 81%
Mods Used: None

After the previous game pretty much abandoning skateboarding in order to be a Jackass video game, Neversoft decided to return to their roots somewhat, with a game where the main focus is becoming good at skateboarding, featuring a ton of new moves and letting you express yourself freely as a digital skater. Well, outside of the story mode, that its.

You start off as a complete nobody with five male characters to pick between (the option to play as a female character has been removed due to a tacked-on romance plot). You don’t know how to skate, so you slowly learn everything with a girl called Mindy telling you who to talk to. By by slowly, I mean really slowly. It takes a couple of hours to reach the mission where you get taught a special trick. The entire game feels like a really long tutorial. You can’t even change your accessories for an obscene amount of time.

The game features an “open world” of sorts. This means that all the levels are based on different areas of LA with long corridors connecting them to hide loading times. It does mean that you have missions that go between different levels, which is nice, but you either have to run back a long distance (running is still faster than skating) or find a bus or car to fast travel. The story mode is pretty much a bust.

You can also ride a BMX and complete a few optional side missions. Controls are different, such as performing tricks with the C-stick. It’s a decent addition that goes alongside skating better than some of the other stuff previous games have tried, but not enough is done with it to be a worthwhile addition, so it feels like an abandoned feature left in.

There’s also just something ugly about the graphics, and the soundtrack itself doesn’t have the same impact as previous games. While the core gameplay is as solid as ever, everything around it seriously lets it down.

Fine

It’s a lot of fun, although you’ll need plenty of stamina and a serious Tony Hawk fetish to get the most out of it. But it’ll all seem worth it when you complete your first combo that includes whacking someone around the head with your deck.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #114

Remake or remaster?

In a remastered collection of Tony Hawk games.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to buy Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland.