Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

by ACTIVISION

Product Features

• Travel throughout the vast urban terrain of Los Angeles - Skate or bike Hollywood, East L.A. and other landmark areas without restrictions or repetition
• More tricks and expanded controls - New on the board tricks like Bert slides, Natas spins handstands, and one-footed grinds and manuals; Off the board tricks include wall runs, wall flips, and charged jumps
• Choose to ride BMX bikes throughout the entire game, with all-new physics, a BMX-specific control system and several BMX-specific goals
• Enter and explore dozens of shops in-game to customize your gear and look - Check out skate shops, barbershops, tattoo parlors, and clothing stores as you accomplish goals and earn cash

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0009Z3HNS
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,790 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland gives you the total freedom you need, to make LA your personal skate and bike park. For the first time, you'll skate or bike in a rich, expansive open environment. The sky's the limit as you progress through the Wasteland. No level, no load times -- just never-ending action. You'll never skate the same line twice!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wasteland cleans up the series, October 23, 2005

By 

C. Bakehorn (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Video Game)

Seven years ago, skateboarding became a game genre with Pro Skater. Every year after that, new additions and refined gameplay kept me playing all four Pro Skaters and both Undergrounds. In all of those years, nothing has impressed me more than Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Somehow Neversoft has done it; they've made the perfect skating game.

I'll skip telling the story, since it's basically the same "get respect" crap that was in the Underground games, and also because the gameplay has been refined to the point of perfection. Neversoft saw it coming--they've outdone themselves and done everything to skateboarding that they could. So other than a few interesting additions to the skateboarding formula (like board stalls, bert slides, and parkour), and the ability to ride and trick on BMX bikes, the coolest addition is the free-sprawling recreation of Los Angeles that serves as the world of THAW. The city is divided into sections, which takes away from some of the huge feel, but I still felt overwhelmed at first by the size of the world. This world is so much fun to skate in that I basically neglected the fact that the story mode goals are terribly easy and repetitive, but serve their purpose in unlocking huge portions of an even larger world.

The controls are spot-on, the combos are still fun, and that's what keeps me coming back to this series. As a note to Neversoft, I don't care about epic storylines and I'm happy with the removal of Bam Margera from the story in general. I'm pleased, as a fan of this series, that I finally have a Hawk game that has the moves, the good controls, and the levels (well, the level) that can keep me playing for another year or two until another boarding game rolls up.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funer then underground and underground 2, November 29, 2005

A Kid's Review

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Video Game)

Ok i just rented this game and beat it it a day and a ahlf. although its easy its incredibly fun to play. everything is great about this game its definitly the best of the series. O and don't complain bout it being easy if u havent noticed you can beat all the tony hawk thug games in about 5 hours

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, tired, old looking game, March 12, 2006

By 

Vynny "Vynrod" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Video Game)

I really wanted to like THAW. I'd played THUG et al and enjoyed them for what they were, but I really expected American Wasteland to step up to the plate and add something to the TH games.

After all, the TV ads hinted at a GTA3 style of gameplay - lots of exploring across the entire west coast with the freedom to go where you want and no loading times. I had visions of jumping from skyscrapers, skating for hours down streets, going where I want - when I want. After a few minutes play though, the reality sinks in. There's no freedom, no massive free-flowing levels, just the same enclosed levels you've played many times before. Level load times are replaced by dull, pointless empty interior corridors and tunnels which serve NO purpose - no plot advances, scores or interaction happen in them. You simply plod through to the next small claustrophobic enclosed level.

Gameplay things fair little better. In story mode you usually have to perform 3 or 4 tricks to 'advance' things a little. This soon proves massively tedious as should you fail anyone of the tricks at any time during the 'mission', you will have to start again. So you listen to the bad acting, watch the awful lipsyncing and terrible out-of-place body movements. Sure you can skip each sentence, but you have to endure the animations - over and over and over again until you manage to perform the exact sequence of button presses the game is expecting from you, sometimes within a 5 second time limit or less. As a player you only do it to open up new levels, not because it's fun. Frustration rapidly overtakes ANY enjoyment gleaned playing the silly challenges in story mode.

And so you turn to classic mode for relief. Except in classic mode the level loading is back! Yup, no tunnels for you. Loading screen, percentage bar and all are here. So what the heck is the point of it all? Let me repeat that - you CANNOT freely travel in classic mode. Sigh.

Another unforgivable new addition to the TH series are the outrageous bugs found in this game - my character has fallen through the floor, got stuck behind a wall and the game has even crashed out completely. You'll be seeing the save screen often.

So it's pretty poor and simply not worth your money - especially if you own one of the previous games. Oh, there's a redundant addition of bmx riding (which you can't do in classic mode, and is utterly useless in story mode) too. But that doesn't save Tony Hawk's American Wasteland from being a buggy, unfinished, crude-looking game.

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