How this will be achieved is through simplicity of control. The nunchuk attachment is not used in Downhill Jam. Instead, you'll simply turn the remote onto its side and control it like a makeshift steering wheel. It can't get more intuitive than simply tilting the remote to turn. Holding down the 2 button will crouch down and ollie, setting up your air tricks, while the B button will do grab tricks.
The first level we took a look at gave us the direction that Tony Hawk is headed with Downhill Jam. For one thing, the name is quite appropriate, as you won't see the kind of open courses that you may be used to from such recent entries as American Wasteland and the upcoming Tony Hawk's Project 8. Instead, the levels are linear races with as much an emphasis on speed as there is on pulling off impressive tricks. In this level, your skater races down the winding streets of San Francisco, grinding on overhangs and railings, and crashing through windows in order to access shortcut alleyways.
There will be a variety of choices to make and varied options on how to compete on a level-by-level basis. You can use trick lines to raise boost meters, or concentrate on finding paths and secret areas to cut across levels. There will be eight large environments and over 90 individual challenge events, and each event will have its own secrets. Some events are straightforward, like racing through gates within a limited time period, the challenge being to end up with as much time on the meter as possible. Others may have you collecting hard-to-reach items, and other such tasks.
Of course, you're going to get the kinds of basic features that you'd expect from a Tony Hawk game, including multiple playable characters and a create-a-skater mode. What's interesting is that the attributes for the eight playable characters are fixed, and their attributes are instead raised by the specific skateboards they use. So a certain board may increase their speed, turning, and combat stats, while another deck may help the skater's balance and jumping. The idea of racing through Machu Picchu at high speed, flying over sick gaps in the ancient Incan fortress is appealing, and the innovative Wii control scheme may breathe some fresh life into a franchise that could use it. We'll have more on Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam in the future, so stay tuned.
