Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
PS2 version cover art
Developer(s)	Wii: Toys For Bob DS: Vicarious Visions GBA: Visual Impact PS2: SuperVillain Studios
Publisher(s)	Activision
Platform(s)	Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	October 24, 2006 Nintendo DS NA October 24, 2006 AUS November 8, 2006 EU November 10, 2006 Game Boy Advance NA November 7, 2006 Wii NA November 14, 2006 EU December 8, 2006 AUS December 13, 2006 PlayStation 2 NA May 8, 2007 EU June 29, 2007 AUS August 1, 2007
Genre(s)	Extreme sports, racing game, strategy
Mode(s)	single player, multiplayer, online multiplayer (Nintendo DS only)
Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+ E (Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions) OFLC: G M (PS2 version) PEGI: 12+ 3+ (Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions) BBFC: 12 (PS2 and Wii versions)
Input methods	Wii Remote (Wii)

Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is a video game in the Tony Hawk series. The game was a launch title for Nintendo's Wii, and is also available for the Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation 2.

As a departure from Neversoft's Tony Hawk games, Downhill Jam emphasizes gaining speed and racing opponents, as well as competing for high scores and completing goals.

[edit] Wii version

The version of Downhill Jam for Wii was developed by Toys for Bob, developer of Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure and the game adaptation of Madagascar.

As in older Tony Hawk’s games, there are game modes for high scores and completing goals, but a high-speed racing mode is also included. Tricks are used in part to reach secret and alternate routes, although revert and manual tricks are absent from the game. This formula is similar to that used in the SSX series of snowboarding games.

The Wii version features a multiplayer mode with four players competing head-to-head in splitscreen. While online play was announced within early development, the final version of this game does not include online play.

[edit] Downhill Challenge

The Wii version of Downhill Jam features a single player mode called "Downhill Challenge". The story to this is Tony Hawk who puts on an event where Tony and friends tour around the world to compete in a series of downhill skating competitions such as: Races, Slalom, "Trick", "Steal The Head", and "Elimirace".

[edit] Locations

• San Francisco
• Hong Kong
• Edinburgh
• Machu Picchu
• Rio
• Rome
• The Alps
• Chicago Mall

[edit] Characters

[edit] Pro skaters

• Tony Hawk
• Kevin Staab

[edit] Fictional skaters

• Ammon - A skater who relies purely on his spirit, as well as the fact that he can get high airs.
• Budd - A mellow dude who has weird visions in his head when in conversation.
• Crash - A skater who often wrecks himself.
• Gunnar - A strong man from Norway who shows little to no consideration for others when racing.
• Kyla - An aspiring Urban musician who believes that skating downhill will not "destroy her soul".
• Jynx - A Goth girl who other skaters believe is the cause of their bad luck in races.
• MacKenzie - A British punk rocker who can often take a violent approach.
• Tiffany - An aspiring fashion queen who is often classed as a social stereotype, despite her good balance on a skateboard.
• Armondo Ootbagh - A legendary skating daredevil from the 70s who has come back from a near-death experience (an attempt at skating underwater) to prove that he's still "the best". Following the fake in game interviews, players find out the he is Crash's father.

[edit] Nintendo DS version

The Nintendo DS version was developed by Vicarious Visions, who gained much experience with the Tony Hawk franchise by adapting almost every previous version for GBA as well as Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for Nintendo DS.

The DS version has six tracks, each four times larger than a typical level from Tony Hawk's American Sk8land. The DS version has a similar character set to the Wii version, as well as the ability to create a character and customize his or her appearance, stats, and special tricks.

The DS version maintains a traditional Tony Hawk control scheme, and much of the same trick set from Sk8land. However, flip tricks can now be held like grab tricks, reverts are eliminated, and the bert slide has been optimized for downhill racing. Additionally a combo buffer has been implemented. When a combo is broken, the player has a few seconds (a buffer) to start a trick again and save the combo. The player is allowed 20 buffers per combo, making the maximum score of 100 million points per combo still difficult to obtain.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for the DS does not support online play anymore as the servers are not being supported anymore.

[edit] Story mode

In its story, you recruit skaters into your skate crew and battle a rival crew run by Antonio Segul (a reference to Tony Hawk, being a bird's name), an oldschool skater trapped in the 80s.

[edit] Locations

• San Francisco
• Edinburgh
• Kilimanjaro
• Hong Kong
• Rio de Janeiro
• The Hoover Dam

[edit] Characters

[edit] Pro skater

• Tony Hawk

[edit] Fictional skaters

• Contessa - Talented "style" skater, part of Tony's team.
• Lachlan - Considered a Scottish skate punk by Antonio Segul, part of Tony's team.
• Ivan - A talented slope skater that pilots the private jet for Tony's team, as well as being in Tony's team.
• Sei Liu - Considered the best skater in Hong Kong, part of Tony's team.
• Darkslide - A talented Brazilian DJ that makes his music while skating, part of Tony's team.
• Antonio Segul - An old school skater trapped in the 80s, he is also Tony Hawk's rival in story mode.

[edit] GBA and PS2 version

The GBA version of the game was developed by Visual Impact and the PS2 version was developed by SuperVillain Studios. Neither game was developed by Neversoft. The PS2 version shares a big similarity with the Wii version of this game, sharing it's graphics, levels, and characters, except, the PS2 version includes three extra characters only playable on the PS2 version:

• Fang - a Scandinaviann punk.
• Hector - a Mexican-American "cholo".
• Skyler - an Emo who often says things like "I'm sad that I'm winning" and "Winning is failing to fail".

[edit] Soundtrack

Compiled both from the Nintendo Wii & The Nintendo DS versions.

[edit] Reviews

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (August 2008)

Downhill Jam has met with mixed reviews.

[edit] DS

• Metacritic: 76/100^[1]
• IGN: 87
• Official Nintendo Magazine UK: 83
• Games Radar: 80
• GameSpy: 80
• Worth Playing: 78
• Nintendo Power: 75
• GameDaily: 70
• 1UP: 70
• GameSpot: 6.6/10
• EuroGamer: 60

[edit] Wii

• Metacritic: 69/100^[2]
• Official Nintendo Magazine UK: 8.5/10
• Games Radar: 80/100
• GameSpy: 80/100
• Electronic Gaming Monthly: 7.5/10
• Nintendo Power: 7.5/10
• 1UP: 7.5/10
• Yahoo! Games: 7.0/10
• IGN: 7.0/10
• Play Magazine: 70/100
• GameTrailers: 68/100
• GamePro: 65/100
• GameSpot: 6/10
• EuroGamer: 5/10
• Game Informer: 50/100
• Edge Magazine: 5/5
• G4 TV: 2/5

[edit] PlayStation 2

• Metacritic: 62/100^[3]
• Games Radar: 60
• GameSpot: 5.9
• IGN: 5.5

[edit] Trivia

• There is a reference to Tony Hawk's Project 8 in this game; Kayla's ringtone is the same ringtone in Project 8 and one of the songs in the game.
• The Chicago Mall level could possibly be based on the real-life shopping mall, Old Chicago, because it has an indoor amusment park like Old Chicago does.
• Downhill Jam is the name of a level in the first Tony Hawk video game, which appears in a redesigned form in this game as the "Hoover Dam" level.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Activision
• Official Website
• Downhill Jam at Tony Hawk Games Wiki
• Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam at IGN
• Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam DS Community
• Tony Hawk Central
• Interview with Toby Schadt (Lead Developer)