Tony Hawk’s American Sk8Land for the Nintendo DS

Developer Diary

Hi.  I’m Dan Wallace, Producer at Vicarious Visions.  I’ve spent the last year of my life bringing the best possible Tony Hawk game for the Nintendo DS to life.  There are a lot of ways to have fun with this game.  Today I’m writing about the Online Features.

Let me tell you how to take full advantage of the SK8Land DS Online features.

First stop by the Skateshop and tweak your appearance, after all you’re going out in public!  Touching the arrows on the bottom screen will cycle through the options and touching the icons will change the color.  There are over a million different combinations in the create-a-skater!  While you’re in the Skateshop grab your stylus and spiff up your Custom Deck and Graffiti.  The graphical editors are the perfect way to show off your ‘skills as an artist’.  The editors have lots of different brushes and tools, a cool outline option, flood fill and most importantly a long list for undo.  There’s also the nifty spinning 3-D representation on the top screen that updates as you draw so you can see your glorious creation in its entire splendor.  (Tip: You can control the spinning object with the shoulder buttons)  Now that you can feel good about yourself, it’s time to go online.

Before I go online I make sure my high scores runs in classic are as cool looking as possible because when you go online and update your stats your highest score for each level will be posted to the scoreboard and the replay will be posted as well.  This means that anyone can go online, go to the scoreboard and view the replay of your run!  You can view your replays from the Skateshop by selecting View replays.  Use the directional pad during replays to view from different camera angles.

Going online is easy.  You don’t need a credit card because there is no monthly fee, there is no password because your DS identifies you and if you don’t have wireless internet at home there are thousands of free access points all around the country (Tip:  you can buy a burger while your getting online).  Once you’re online the fun really begins.  Play head to head against anyone in the country, or against your friends.  Play downloadable goals and download custom art.  My favorite thing is checking out the high score boards and viewing re-plays.  When viewing the Pro Scoreboard just highlight the run you want to view and press (A) and presto you’re watching the run.  You can learn a lot from watching other players; it’s the best way to get really good at Tony Hawk.  Press the L button in the scoreboard to filter it down to just your friends; this is a nice way to strut your stuff in front of your buddies.

After you’ve logged on for the first time you can use the password provided to gain access to the American SK8Land community site, www.american-sk8land.com.  On the community site you can form SK8Crews, interact with other fans in the forums, browse other players ‘Rap Sheets’ and much more.  Definitely spend some time browsing the custom art.  The only way to get art up on the site is by drawing on the DS touch screen and uploading while online so there is sure to be plenty of original works.  You can select your favorite works of art and download them to your DS too!

The American SK8Land DS online features ensure that you’ll be enjoying the game long after you buy it.  With the ease of connectivity and variety of entertaining features there is no reason not to give it s shot.  And it’s free!

See you online

Dan Wallace

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