Tony Hawk's: American Wasteland

Platform: Multiplatform
Publisher: Activision
Review Type: Looky
Version: Production Trailer

The fact that Activision is really milking the Tony Hawk franchise is pretty much indisputable. The series has taken a story driven turn since Tony Hawk's Underground, and since then has become more and more concerned with the culture of skateboarding. These attempts at relevence have had limited results, particularly when depending on a butt-ugly character model of Bam Margera to help "keep it real."

If there's any benefit to making the eighth game in a fading series, it's that you get experiment a little. This production trailers focuses on a portion of the game's graphical style which directly recalls the classic, punk-influnced cartooning of Jim Phillips -- best known for the "Screaming Hand" graphic he designed for Santa Cruz Skateboards.

In the game the art is created by Phillips' son Jimbo Phillips and introduced as the panel art of an underground comic book.

I can't see this kind of niche culture being a mandate from the Activision marketing department. Unless, that is, their marketing suits are so damn savvy that they're trying to lure aging, 30-year-old ex skaters like myself with a calculated touch of punk rock nostalgia. They'd do that, wouldn't they?

Trailer here.