Tony Hawk makes his first foray onto the Nintendo DS with Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land. And while the game is not the best title to take advantage of the DS handheld’s unique qualities, it is nonetheless a solid skateboarding title that should make fans of the extreme sports genre more than happy.

Have you noticed that most DS games are falling into two main categories as the system builds a library? The first category is games that were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the unique control opportunities that the DS touch screen offers. The second category is games that simply use the superior processing power of the machine to make almost console-like games on a handheld and may only use the touch screen as a gimmick. Those that fall into the first category are generally pretty good. The quality of those that fall into the second can range all over the place.

Sk8land definitely falls more into the second category. Almost everything you will do in the game is accomplished with a combination of D-pad movements and button presses. The touch screen is used for more special moves. The result is actually a pretty good game that very much captures the Tony Hawk play style.

Before you get started, you’ll build your new skater with the limited avatar creator. You can opt for a male or female skater and then choose hair and clothes for them. There is not a lot to choose from, but I suppose it is adequate.

In the campaign one-player mode of Sk8land you’ll play as a new boarder in town. Your goal is to skate in five Los Angeles areas to earn money to build a fabulous park: the American Sk8land. You’ll do this by meeting the locals and performing skateboarding tasks of their choosing. As you skate the landscape, people with missions appear with a green arrow over their heads. Ride up close to them, talk to them, accomplish the mission, and the money is yours.

From a control point of view, Sk8land is going to be very familiar to Tony Hawk players. The D-pad and button combos come very close to the same control scheme we’ve seen for years in the series.

In Sk8land the main action takes place in the upper screen. Here you’ll see your skater and perform your tricks. The bottom screen is generally the map and the place conversations take place. Just below the score is the Special Meter. As you do tricks you’ll build your Special Meter. When filled, three touch points appear on the lower touch screen. These virtual buttons are mapped to special tricks that can only be performed when the Special Meter is full. Also on the touch screen is the Focus button. Focus allows your skater to go into a slow-motion, bullet time that gives you more opportunities to chain tricks together. So while the game’s marketers can legitimately say Sk8land uses the touch screen, its main purpose is to add more buttons.

In addition to the campaign single-player mode, Sk8land also offers a Classic Mode that allows players to play in the style of the old Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games that started the series and Free Skate that lets the player just skate a chosen area without the pressure of time or goals. Like its console big brother, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, Sk8land could not resist the call of online play and incorporates both the wireless connection of two DS systems in the same room and over Nintendo’s WiFi service for folks across the country. Sadly the wireless connection in the same room requires that both players have a copy of the game in their systems. Wireless and WiFi games include just free skating with a bud, Trick Attack where the highest score attained while doing tricks wins, and a competition to pull off the highest scoring combo in a set amount of time.

Graphically the game employs a slick cell-shaded style that is very attractive and serves the over-the-top nature of the play well. The sound effects are more than adequate for the game and come through nice and clearly on the DS speakers or headphones. The music is good … until you’ve heard the limited selections one too many times.

Overall Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land is a very solid game that is sure to succeed with the demographic it is targeted to. As I’ve said before, the series is getting to be way too much of the same thing no matter what platform it plays on. But the core game mechanic continues to work, so I suppose I can’t really fault it too much. For the game player who loves his DS and has been a longtime fan of the Tony Hawk games, the decision to pick this game up is going to be a no-brainer. The game has a 100 percent pure Tony Hawk pedigree. For gamers looking for more innovative experiences for their innovative little system, it probably should be a rental-before-purchase situation. Either way, the game itself offers a satisfying game experience and earns a “B” score.