''Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam'' is a

skateboarding Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation ...

video game in the ''

Tony Hawk's ''Tony Hawk's'' is a skateboarding video game series published by Activision and endorsed by the American professional skateboarder of the same name. The series was primarily developed for home consoles by Neversoft from launch to 2007, unti ...

'' series. The game, named after the level "Downhill Jam" from ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', released as ''Tony Hawk's Skateboarding'' in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation o ...

'', was published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

in 2006 as a timed Nintendo exclusive for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

, and

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

(as a launch title). In 2007, it was published for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

. It is a spin-off in which accompanies the release of ''

Tony Hawk's Project 8 ''Tony Hawk's Project 8'' is a skateboarding video game and the eighth installment in the ''Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in November 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, an ...

'', which is conversely available on non-Nintendo systems. As a departure from

Neversoft Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the st ...

's ''Tony Hawk'' games, ''Downhill Jam'' emphasizes gaining speed and racing opponents, as well as competing for high scores and completing goals. This is the only

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

title in the series.

Wii version

The version of ''Downhill Jam'' for Wii was developed by

Toys for Bob Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. As the creators of the award-winning '' Star Control'' and '' Skylanders'' series, the studio originated as a partnership between Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford ...

, developer of '' Pandemonium!'' and '' Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure''. This version is played with the

Wii Remote The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact wi ...

held sideways, and players tilt it left or right to steer their character down the track. As in older ''Tony Hawks games, there are game modes for high scores and completing goals, but a high-speed racing mode forms the crux of the game. Tricks are used in part to reach secret and alternate routes, although revert and manual tricks are absent. This formula is similar to that used in the ''

SSX ''SSX'' is a series of snowboarding and skiing video games published by EA Sports. It is an arcade-style racing game with larger-than-life courses, characters, and tricks. While the general focus of the series is racing and performing tricks on ...

'' series of snowboarding games. The Wii version features a multiplayer mode with four players competing head-to-head in split screen. While online play was announced within early development, it was not included in the final version of the game.

Downhill Challenge

The

version of ''Downhill Jam'' features a single-player mode called "Downhill Challenge". The story to this is

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

who puts on an event where Hawk and friends tour around the world to compete in a series of downhill skating competitions such as: Races,

Slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

, "

Trick Trick(s) may refer to: People * Trick McSorley (1852–1936), American professional baseball player * Armon Trick (born 1978), retired German international rugby union player * David Trick (born 1955), former Ontario civil servant and univers ...

", "Steal The Head", and "Elimirace".

Story mode

In its story, the player recruits skaters into

's skate crew and battles a rival crew run by Antonio Segul (a reference to Tony Hawk, being a bird's name), an "old-school" skater trapped in the 80s. To recruit the skaters, they must beat various challenges before challenging that particular skater to one of 3 events to earn a medal, and the skater him/herself. The story of the DS version can be treated as a sequel to '' American Sk8land'', as the skatepark featured in Downhill Jam's opening and closing cutscenes is American Sk8land, the decrepit skatepark from ''American Sk8land''. The story mode is only available in the DS version, while the Wii version has "Downhill Challenge".

DS version

The Nintendo DS version was developed by

Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Sk ...

, who gained much experience with the ''Tony Hawk'' franchise by adapting almost every previous version for GBA as well as '' Pro Skater 4'' for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

and '' American Sk8land'' for Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS version takes full advantage of the handheld's processing power to utilize 3-D graphics, and is often cited as one of the most exceptional DS games to employ three-dimensional, high-polygon graphics. The Nintendo DS version has six tracks, each four times larger than a typical level from ''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 Nintendo 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 3 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. This version supports online multiplayer, but it is no longer available because the

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) was an online Multiplayer, multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS and Wii games. The service included the company's Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop game d ...

servers were shut down in 2014.

Reception

The reception has been mixed. The DS version is the most well-received one among the three, followed by the Wii version and the PlayStation 2 version according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

Notes

References

{{Toys for Bob 2006 video games Activision games Game Boy Advance games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Nintendo DS games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games PlayStation 2 games Racing video games Skateboarding video games Downhill Jam Toys for Bob games Vicarious Visions games Video game spin-offs Wii games Video games developed in the United States SuperVillain Studios games