Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
File:Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Coverart.png
Developer(s)	Neversoft
Publisher(s)	Activision, Aspyr
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Windows
Release	October 18, 2005 GameCube, PS2 & Xbox Xbox 360 Windows
Genre(s)	Sports, adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

"THAW" redirects here. For other uses, see Thaw.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, abbreviated to THAW, is a video game that was released for the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo GameCube and PC on October 18, 2005. Part of the Tony Hawk series, the game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision.

The PC version of the game was ported and published by Aspyr. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is the first Tony Hawk game to support Xbox Live; online play was previously limited to the PlayStation 2 and PC. The Nintendo DS version of this game, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, features Wi-Fi capabilities. It is the first third-party DS game to have online support. A Game Boy Advance version of the game was released as well under the same name.

Features

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is the first game in the Tony Hawk franchise that allowed players to play in one large level without loading times in between. In the September 2005 edition of Game Informer, a map was shown displaying THAW's Los Angeles with an insert of an overhead view of the Boston stage from Tony Hawk's Underground 2 for comparison. The Boston level appeared to be about three quarters the size of one THAW area, with the exception of the "Vans Skatepark" and "Casino" areas.

The game features compatibility with the EyeToy USB camera to import the face of the player onto a created skater. The game also features the return of the Classic Mode, which allows the player to complete a series of goals in certain levels within a two-minute time limit.

Story

The game begins with the player choosing one of five pre-designed male skaters to play with. Upon choosing, the player gets on a bus to Los Angeles, where the player meets a blonde-haired girl named Kelly, who says she is going to L.A. to become an actress. He tells her that he is going to get away from friends and family, who have treated him badly.

Upon arrival in Hollywood, he gets punched by punks, who steal the player's bag and tell him to go back to "Ken-sucky", Los Angeles being a locals-only scene. Here he meets Mindy, who tells him that he needs to sort his clothes and hair out, which is making him stand out as an outsider at the moment. He then get changes of his hair and clothes, and meets two local skaters, Ian and Duane, who introduce new tricks to him and advance his skills. He then finds one of the punks who stole his bag and challenges him to a skate off, where if he won, the punk had to give him his bag back. He wins but the punk tries to take off again. The player then smacks the punk with his board and takes his bag back.

He sees Mindy drawing and finds out that she is a talented artist. Her sketches are going to be featured in her skating zine, named American Wasteland. However, Mindy hasn't gathered enough money to fund the project yet, but the player assures her it will happen. She has sketched something that catches the player's eye. The player proceeds to ask what the place is and Mindy says it is a "sick spot that you would absolutely love," but then tells the player that the spot is exclusive to local skaters. The player then pleads with her to get them in, to which Mindy agrees. However, the skate park is in Beverly Hills, and the passage to Beverly Hills is blocked by a protest against poor treatment of sheep. The player ends the protest by destroying a huge dinosaur head model that is on top of a movie theatre, which smashes into the protest.

He arrives in Beverly Hills and goes outside a place called the "Skate Ranch," which is where the place in Mindy's sketchbook is. There, he meets Mindy's skater friends: Boone, a bald man who goes for extreme jumps and gaps, but usually bails them; Useless Dave, a short man who is "the encyclopedia of useless skateboarding trivia"; and Murphy, a tall, sarcastic type who has an endless array of contacts and friends all over L.A., and is always on his cell phone. He won't let him go into the ranch, unless he can keep up with their skating skills. He has to learn their performed tricks and then show them to them to prove himself worthy of going in the ranch.

Gaining their approval, he is let into the ranch, and meets the leader of the group, Iggy Van Zandt, a very rough type guy who isn't fond of outsiders. He will let him crash at the ranch if you obtain some wood for a half-pipe he is building. When he does, the half-pipe is set-up, which spurs the group to do the ranch up and make it a full-on skatepark. With the help of Murphy's contacts, he and the group embark on obtaining skate-able pieces from all over L.A., the first being the destroyed dinosaur head he made earlier on.

From here on in, the overall task is to obtain pieces for the skate ranch, unlocking new places in L.A., the first being Downtown, where Master Zen is, who teaches you Special and Focus, which you need to participate in the Tony Hawk AmJam, an amateur skating contest taking place in the Vans Skatepark in Downtown.

He wins the AmJam, however, while making a short speech, he tells Tony Hawk that the last trick you performed was taught to him by Iggy Van Zandt, who, unknown to the player, is living in total secrecy in the ranch, as Iggy's crime rate is somewhat extensive according to Mindy causing him to be arrested by the police.

Mindy then suggest he talks to the Z-Boys, the only other group Iggy has hung out with, about what to do. He then gets slapped by a little Iggy fan and is warned by Mindy that she might have friends. So you then meet skating legend Tony Alva, from who you find out that Iggy's skate ranch is actually "Green Pipes Point," a legendary snake run that got levelled many years ago. He decides it has to be dug up, and befriends Alva's friend Mega, who runs an oil rig just off Santa Monica.

While Mega is digging up Green Pipes Point, Mindy tells him that Boone was in the local street gang known as the "Black Widows". Boone recently dropped out of the gang but was jumped and is now missing in East L.A.. He joins the Widows by impressing them with his spray painting, skating and BMX skills to get to East L.A. and save Boone, who was trapped in a sewer pipe.

After some time, the player gets a phone call from Iggy in jail, who explains his bail will be with him shortly and tells him "one day you'll make it up to [him]". The player tells Iggy that he "already did" because he found out about Green Pipes Point and that it is being dug up, expecting an ecstatic response from Iggy. However, Iggy hates what you have done, because he didn't own the land, and if "the owner finds out what a badass skatepark he has, he'll cash in on the place." Iggy threatens violence and hangs up.

Shortly after, he receives a text message from Mega saying that stuff is happening at the ranch. Upon arriving in Beverly Hills, the game cuts to a news report, which is about the revival of Green Pipes Point, showing pros and locals being very happy. Outside the ranch, he sees the owner, Shapiro, in an expensive car, and ask why he sold it, being so legendary. The soon-to-be-ex owner doesn't care, and rides off with a snobbish attitude, pleased of his new money.

Iggy arrives with a baseball bat, and starts hitting the ranch's gate in rage. The player tries to apologize, but it doesn't matter to Iggy. Iggy says that it'll never be his place thanks to him. The player seems to shout and tell him that "It could've been if you hadn't been sitting on your ass all these years waiting for someone else to bail you out!" Instantly, Iggy drops his bat and punches him in the face, saying that there's "some things [he has] waited too long to do." The player also snaps at Mindy, blaming it on her because of her suggestion to do up the ranch, and insult her drawings, which deeply offends her and she storms off.

The player, Murphy, Dave and Boone decide to start a project to save the ranch, by making a skate video featuring famous pros, with all the proceeds going to Green Pipes Point. He then rounds up many pros, including pro BMX rider Matt Hoffman.

Eventually, the buzz of the video has become so big that the ranch can be bought simply with the money from the pre-orders. The group leaves the casino, but confronted with a vast array of police cars and helicopters. The player's task is to get to the ranch from East L.A., without using any public transport or cars.

When the player arrives at the ranch successfully, everyone is completely overjoyed, with Iggy saying that the ranch is now his, and to celebrate, he is going to throw a party at the ranch, with everyone in town invited. Mindy comes over to the player on the half-pipe, and he apologizes. She accepts the apology, and shows off her first edition of her Magazine, American Wasteland, which she was talking about at the start of the game. The player is on the cover. Iggy comes over and spills the beans that the player was the one who gave her the money to get American Wasteland published. Mindy seems flattered, and the two eventually kiss and presumably become lovers.

At the end of the game, the American Wasteland is complete with various items such as the dug-up snake run, a crane, and the world famous Hollywood sign reading "Wasteland." The player has the respect of all the pro skaters for creating an amazing Skatepark, and Mindy becomes his girlfriend.

Soundtrack

Main article: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (soundtrack)

Reception

The game received mixed reviews, with the general consensus being that the 'one level' aspect was a let-down since all of the areas were only accessible from one another via bland corridors that simply masked the necessary loading times. The next game, Tony Hawk's Project 8, went back to the level selection screens of previous games. The following year, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground once again attempted a 'one level' style, which was considered more successful due to the greater technology available on seventh generation consoles.

Other criticism also lay with the general lack of evolution in the series, although many others saw this as a good thing since the original gameplay was so popular to begin with and didn't need unnecessary tampering. As such, the Classic Mode was received more warmly by many critics than the Story Mode.

• X-Play -
• GameInformer - 8.75 out of 10
• GameSpot - 7.5 out of 10
• IGN- 8.5 out of 10 (PS2,Xbox,Gamecube) 8.3 out of 10 (Xbox 360)

External links

• Official site