Take a dozen of your favorite animated characters on a wild sports adventure through some of the most colorful places in animation history.
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure™ uses Tony Hawk's Pro Skater™ 4 gameplay technology, so don't expect the tricks to be any easier or any less spectacular just because the skaters are animated. You have the same kind of tight control and intuitive combos asTony Hawk's Pro Skater, and somehow, it's even more impressive when a squatting warthog with a meerkat on his back pulls off a high-altitude 360-degree trick.
The characters are what really set this game apart, as the strength of the Disney and Pixar creative teams come through in every aspect of Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure. Aside from the powerful draw of skating as your favorite character (Rafiki fans unite!), you get to watch them leap, spin, and contort themselves in highly amusing ways, so that their oddball proportions don't interfere with the trick.
The list of skaters spans many of Disney's more recent and high-profile blockbusters: Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King, Tarzan and Jane from Disney's Tarzan, and Buzz and Jessie from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2. There are even tot versions of Tarzan and Jane from Disney's Tarzan and a host of familiar faces that act as non-playable characters (NPCs), offering tips, advice, and frequent side quests. In Andy's Room, where Toy Story 2 took place, a gravel-voiced Army Man sergeant asks you to help bust his platoon out of the locked toy chest. You can opt to perform the bean-plant trick on the chest's lock and turn the green plastic warriors loose, or you can skate on to meet new NPCs and discover new challenges.
Disney and Disney/Pixar mainstays aren't the only skaters, however. After an exhaustive nationwide search for contestants, Activision has selected 10 real-life kids, who will appear in the game as playable characters. These seven boys and three girls are collectively called the "Extreme Skate Crew," and each earned their spot in videogame history by out-skating the competition in a series of tests and demonstrations. Gamers can also create a skater from scratch, so those of you that didn't make the Extreme Skate Crew also have a way to put yourselves (or the funkiest skater you can imagine) into the action.
Every detail of the game's vast environments says Disney and Pixar. From Tarzan's tree house to Scar's Canyon to the Pizza Planet, each new "park" is packed with colorful cartoon elements that act as rails, ramps, and walls for you to use in your tricks. Strange wind-up toys scuttle back and forth, acting as obstacles and fleshing out the environment. Chatty NPCs will flag you down and ask for help in the form of mini-quests. It's a lot like spending a few hours inside a Disney cartoon, with nothing to do but meet interesting oddballs and tool around on your skateboard.
Though this is a skateboarding game, not every character uses actual skateboards. In an inspired bit of whimsy, many of the characters skate on decidedly nontraditional equipment. Buzz Lightyear, for example, uses a wheel-less hoverboard, Nala the lion rides on the back of a turtle, and Tarzan's simian pal Terk uses a frying pan she stole from the human's camp. In terms of gameplay, there's no practical difference between a skateboard and a sheet of bark, but it sure is fun to see your favorites doing their stuff on a board that reflects who they are. Each character also has a specific personal item to collect, such as Woody's sheriff's badge, Rakifi's flaming pomegranates, or a cameo necklace with a picture of Tarzan's mom.
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is a deep and challenging game with a playful sense of humor. Younger gamers will enjoy mastering ollies, grinds, and nosegrabs in the guise of their cartoon heroes, while older thrashers will groove on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 controls and gravity-defying trick system. Now everyone can enjoy extreme sports, no matter how old or young they are—just don't stand next to Tantor the elephant when he wipes out.
