Hayden Meikle reviews Activision's new Tony Hawk installment for Nintendo DS
Tony Hawk's Motion
Activision
Nintendo DS
By HAYDEN MEIKLE
The idea: A skateboarding game that lets you tilt the DS left and right to, well, move left and right.
The accessory: A "motion pack" - what techies call a dongle - that plugs into the bigger of the two DS ports.
The game: In the umpteenth game in the series based on the exploits of the legendary skater, Tony Hawk gets to throw down his ollies and grinds on his board and also tests his skills on the slopes.
Levels: Two for wheels, two for snow.
In other words, not enough.
But wait, there's more: The game comes packaged with an add-on called Hue, a sort of a mini-arcade game where you use the motion-sensing tool to roll a blob of paint around a landscape.
The good: It's kind of fun for about 17 minutes.
The bad: Only four levels? The action happens at a snail's pace.
Tricks are random.
The buttons never feel comfortable.
The ugly: Being able to tilt the DS to move your skater sounds like a great idea.
But all you end up doing is distorting your view of the screen, forcing you to crane your neck to see where you are going.
All in all: A poor attempt at an interesting concept.
Better luck next time, dude.
