Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam

Given no prior knowledge of the Tony Hawk’s series, a light-hearted downhill racing game bearing this famous skater’s name seems a fine idea. Until now, however, Tony Hawk has been synonymous with one of the most versatile and involving extreme sports experiences on console. If the latter is what you’re expecting from Hawk’s on Wii, well, you just ain’t getting it.

Instead Downhill Jam, as the title screams, is a speed-oriented challenge for up to four players, making basic though intuitive use of the Wii remote. Rocking the controller side to gives adequate control over steering. It’s nothing sensational, but feels pretty good when you’ve gathered plenty of speed. There’s not a whole lot to think about other than dodging obstacles, and shoving your rivals out of the way (rather disappointingly this is done by tapping the D-pad, whereas we would have enjoyed shaking the nunchuck instead). Tricks are limited to what you can perform while in mid-air using one button, or grinding rails using the remote to keep your balance. Successful tricks give a temporary speed boost. And that’s basically it.

Downhill Jam’s gameplay is described as ‘arcade-style’, in other words the kind of thing you’d play for 15 minutes then happily find something else to do. Although it’s a pretty-looking game, and we admire its in-yer-face bravado, the events feel like a small part of what should’ve been a bigger package. So, slick but missing quite a large extra certain something, and with the Wii control not exploited nearly enough. Why use a button to crouch and jump, for example, when you could push down and pull up on the remote? In this case simple just feels shallow.

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