"I figured Los Angeles would be much bigger....."

Oh Tony, you so crazy. Mainly because every single year you release a Tony Hawk skateboarding video game. And this is another one. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Or THAW for short.

STORY
In this outing you play as a man whose left his hometown troubles to make it big in Los Angeles. Skateboarder big anyway. Along the way he runs into a wild bunch of people who own a skate park known as Wasteland. You join these ruffians and cause chaos in the city, even running into a few stars here and there. This game has the best story of any Tony Hawk game so far...and it was actually neat to watch and kept me intrigued to find out what happened next.

GRAPHICS
The graphics in the game are unique. If you want to see rebel teens and punk skaters...this captures the look perfectly. Believe me if your a skater you will love the attitudes, moves and overall look of this game. I actually dug the cutscenes. It was all in-game engine with your character in them, but it also had like comic book or cartoon scenes thrown in. Sorta like the movie Tank Girl. That movie kicked ass by the way. It looks perfect. Granted the graphics are a bit cartoony. But still the framerate is good and there's barely any loading which is always great.

SOUND
The audio like all Hawk games feature the best in punk music that you could possibly want. To be honest not many were recognizable this time around, so I think it kinda fell short this year. The voice acting is superb in the cutscenes, and that's good considering all the pro skaters talk in it. Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, Rodney Mullen, Tony Alva... they're all a treat to listen to. It captures the feel of skateboarding in everyway.

GAMEPLAY
The actual gameplay? It's pretty much the same as the old games...but now I think it's perfected at long last. Any trick you've seen a skateboarder do, I guarantee is now available to perform in this game. The game's story mode takes place in LA, so there are no more levels, it's actually one big city this time around. Granted however it's not the real hugeness of LA...it's just a sandbox smaller version of LA. Even still it was great to see no load times. The game is just a total blast to play even being the 7th game in the series.

The controls are simple and racking up chains and combos are really easy and great. If you've played any of the previous games then you know how the game handles. The story mode takes the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas formula where you can choose from 5 guys to play, and there are shops to get tattoos, clothes, and a new haircut. Luckily no food shops to make your character fatter. Unfortunately you can't play a girl in story mode...not that it looked good in Underground anyway. The character has even become so flexible that he can run up walls and do back and front flips....yeah I know it's really unrealistic. Still fun though!

And for those who want an old school Tony Hawk feel, there is still the Classic Mode where you can collect SKATE letters and get high scores and such under a 2 minute time limit. That's always a treat. The one thing they added to the game, which thank god is only in one mission of the story mode is the BMX. For some reason the creators of the game figured this game should allow you to ride a bike as well. Does it work? No. I hate it. It handles horribly and it has nothing to do with Tony Hawk. Stick with the skateboard and you'll be fine.

IN THE END...
The game is great my friends, you will love it, and you will love unlocking everything. If you're a skater fan. Be warned that this game is still the same of what we remember from before in the previous games. That being said, it's just as good as THUG, so I love it. It's a blast, if short and redone yet again.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/06