This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

The Tony Hawk series has needed some serious spicing up in recent years. As much as Neversoft, Activision, etc. has tried to do just that, the core gameplay has remained unchanged. It remains a great system as evidenced by how many other action sports games have ripped them right off, but it’s gotten old. Downhill Jam is another attempt at changing it up by turning it into a racing game that still maintains the tried-and-true Tony Hawk trick system. Unfortunately, making it a racing game wasn’t that great of a choice.

If you’ve played a Tony Hawk game before, then the trick system will feel very familiar to you. Crouching lets you travel a tad bit faster and you can spring easily into an ollie from that position. While in the air, a variety of direction and button presses will perform flips, grabs, and grinds. The largest differences are the need to no longer revert after an air and boosting. Reverts were used to extend combos after an air trick, but to help keep things smooth in a race, there is instead a small window of time in which you can land and then hurry to find something else to trick off of to keep the combo going. Boosting is an integral part of the winning formula. As you pull tricks off successfully, the boost meter will build. Holding down X gives you a significant boost of speed and can and will affect how you finish. Because of this, DH turns into a game where a delicate balance between tricking and boosting is a must.

It may be a racing title, but it’s still a Tony Hawk game at its heart, so you will see the same kinds of game play modes you’ve seen in previous titles. There’s the world tour, jam session, quick race, free skate and lessons. World tour is DH’s story mode. Tony Hawk is assembling a downhill race team with you as his first recruit. World tour gets its name from the fact that you’ll span the globe trying to check off the massive list of goals. Most of the goals involve racing downhill against the AI controller racers of the rival downhill team, which makes sense – this is a racing game. However, some of the older-style goals make an appearance as well like meeting score requirements, collecting five of a certain item during a race, or doing a trick on a particular piece. As you finish off goals, more levels open up, and you’ll earn stat upgrades to spend amongst four categories for your skater.

Jam session plays like a more free world tour mode; as the manual puts it – it’s Downhill Jam’s pick-up-and-play mode. Here you can try to best a course’s fastest time, reach new high scores, or finish other challenges throughout each of the levels you unlocked in world tour. Quick race, free skate, and lessons play straight to their namesakes. Free skate is very helpful because without a clock, you’re free to find shortcuts and combo lines at your leisure.

Downhill Jam supports Wi-Fi connectivity, and it sports some modes that are more fun than the single-player campaign. Big air is a competition to see who can grab the most hang time on a jump during a race. Elimiskate eliminates the person in last place after set intervals until there is only one winner. It may not be as plentiful in options, but playing against other people is always a blast. Just be warned that you’ll have more luck playing with people you’ve exchanged friend codes with than randomly hopping into an online game. Oh, and did I mentioned that Downhill Jam supports voice-chat? Let the trash talking begin.

The transition into a racing game, sadly, isn’t a great one. The best part of the Tony Hawk series was being able to free roam, tricking on whatever you could find, creating your own custom skate lines. Now, you’re essentially stuck on a one-way track, which can be quite annoying on some goals. It’s pretty forgiving on the collection goals, but the trick on a certain object ones can get frustrating. The controls aren’t exactly the tightest so you can expect to mess up on occasion. It’s trying to reset for another attempt that really drags things down. Since it’s all downhill trying to reset involves going uphill – very slowly. You could also pause and select to retry through the menu, but it’s hard to say if that’s quicker than slogging uphill.

Some new goals introduced are called “style goals” in which you’re judged by how well you skate. Points are earned for landing cleanly and using a variety of tricks. It doesn’t sound too bad until you factor in the AI competition. It’s really annoying having a huge scoring clean big air trick get penalized for running into an opponent just a touch after landing. Running into someone causes you to become wobbly and lose points for a sloppy landing when it isn’t the case. That’s sloppy programming.

Graphically, Downhill Jam has the same cel-shaded style that Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land on the DS used last year. In all honesty, they aren’t all that great looking. Lots of jagged edges dot the borders of the tracks. At least the game spots a smooth framerate – a necessity in a racing game.

Lastly, the create-a-skater options are very limited. I wasn’t expecting something along the scope of the console versions, and even with unlockable equipment, there isn’t much variety when it comes to fiddling with your avatar’s looks.

Changing the Tony Hawk franchise into a racing game was an attempt to liven up a franchise that’s been stuck in a funk the last couple of years. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do enough to freshen things up and in fact hinders quite a bit of the gameplay fans have come to know and love. If you’re expecting a revival in the franchise, then be prepared for a massive disappointment.

Interesting balance between tricking and boosting. Unresponsive controls hamper the experience.

Not that pretty of a game, but it does have a smooth framerate.

Decent soundtrack and good full sound effects.

If you’ve got lots of friend codes, bump this up a full point.

Same as above. Single-player will only hold your interest for one playthrough.