The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of games is well known as one of the top games in the field that some folks like to think of as the extreme sports genre. While the classification of skateboarding as an extreme sport may seem a little odd to some people (umm, I never thought it was back in the days when I used to skate), there's no doubt that Activision has its hands on a well-developed game. As a matter of fact, it's so well developed, that they decided to use the gameplay engine technology fromTony Hawk's Pro Skater™ 4 to power Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure™. They pulled out the hard edges that normally go along with skateboarding and added a much more upbeat angle with a ton of Disney and Disney/Pixar characters. The end result is a lot of fun without the blood and guts. OK, so there wasn't a lot of that in the first place, but some of those crashes used to make my back hurt just watching them.
Now, before you Tony Hawk's Pro Skater purists panic and smash the Back button on your browser, there are a few things that you might want to know. From the looks of things, Activision has used this as yet another chance to give the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater engine a tune up. First, there are a lot of free-roaming areas, no time constraints, great controls, good physics, and a truckload of tricks. Just like last time around, non-playable characters throughout each level will dole out challenges on request. The Create-a-Skater mode is an expanded version of the one found in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4(if you can imagine such a thing) and offers the flexibility to change just about everything on your skater.
Another interesting angle from Activision is the skaters that they have selected for this little number. For starters, they are using many of the characters from various Disney and Disney/Pixar movies. (As if you hadn't guessed that already, right?) The cast includes Simba, Rafeeki, Pumbaa and Timon, and Nala from The Lion King; Tarzan, Jane, Terk, and Tantor from Disney's Tarzan; and Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and Zurg from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2. Of course, it is kind of hard to picture any of these characters on a traditional board, so each one has its own, ranging all the way from Victorian mirrors to little Red Wagons. And, if all that wasn't enough, Activision also held a nationwide casting call to chase down 10 of the most, umm, extreme six- to 14-year-old skateboarding Disney fans out there. Those lucky 10 kids ended up as the "Extreme Skate Crew" that fills out the list of playable skaters. Can you imagine being one of those kids at school? "What did you do during summer vacation, Ryan?"
The game world itself is a mixture of old school and new. It mixes traditional real-world environments along with some things that are uniquely Disney/Pixar. There are three levels for each world and even clips from each movie. From Pride Rock to Andy's Room, or even the Elephant Graveyard, you can imagine just how interesting these areas are. With the consideration of both Disney and Pixar behind the game, the people over at Activision couldn't really hold anything back. The areas are up to par with what you would expect from one of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, except that they are much brighter and more colorful and don't involve any ghettos or trailer parks.
The sum total of all this work by Activision is very interesting. While it may be a little too fluffy for some of the older gamers, it is still a kick to play. If you find yourself getting a little twitchy because of all that "kid stuff," you might try just relaxing a bit and remembering how much fun it is to be a kid. Every now and then, it's nice to just kick back and go for a ride on a frying pan.
