While Activision is porting Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Call of Duty 3 to Nintendo's upcoming Wii console they took a different direction for their Wii Tony Hawk game. Instead of porting Tony Hawk's Project 8, they commissioned developer Toys For Bob to create Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, which is not only exclusive to the Wii but turns the pro skateboarding franchise in an all new direction. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with Toys For Bob producer Alex Ness to find out more about Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam.

FiringSquad: First, how did the idea for Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam come about and did the idea come before the announcement of the Wii and its controller?

Alex Ness: It came from Activision research about the Tony Hawk franchise. They were trying to find out what kinds of things fans of the series wanted to see in future games and downhill racing kept coming up. This was long before the Wii was announced but eventually, after getting feedback like this for a while, they made the decision to go ahead and finally make a downhill racing game. I’m just glad we were the team that got to do it.

FiringSquad: Is it a risk to deviate from the Tony Hawk formula with a downhill racing game?

Alex Ness: I feel like we’ve kept the best parts of the Tony Hawk games, the core mechanics and trick system, and given the audience a whole new way to play with them.

FiringSquad: What will the tracks be like in Downhill Jam?

Alex Ness: Our tracks are a pretty mixed bag. We have urban environments and outdoors kind of environments and everything in between. Each one has a ton of different shortcuts and lines. There’s no one path to follow on any of our events. There are many different ways to get to the bottom.

FiringSquad: Will there be any progression and advancement of your racer as the game progresses?

Alex Ness: As you play through the different events, you will unlock different things and some of them are skateboards. The skateboard is what enhances your player’s stats. Generally, each board you unlock is better than the last and the differences are pretty obvious between the different boards. You will also be able to unlock different clothes for your skater. The clothes don’t really affect gameplay but it’s nice to have a change of scenery sometimes. Plus it can kind of give you a sense of accomplishment when your skater looks different than when you started playing the game.

FiringSquad: What kind of power ups and challenges will Downhill Jam have in its tracks?

Alex Ness: We have 3 main event types: races, tricks, and slaloms. Races are just like they sound. Beat the other skaters to the finish line. Trick events are where your skater needs to score a certain amount of trick points on their way to the bottom. Slaloms involve hitting a series of gates down the course. You’re not as concerned with going super fast or doing a ton of tricks. It’s more about precise skating and getting to certain lines. Besides those three main types, we also have a bunch of special events that involve more specific tasks. Knocking down a certain amount of pedestrians, causing a certain amount of damage, skating in an elimination type race, etc.

As far as power-ups go, we don’t really have those in the race and slalom events but there is a speed boost mechanic that’s not unlike a power-up. Doing tricks, knocking people down, and causing destruction will fill up the boost meter. Fill that thing up all the way and you get a speed boost. Attaining and using these speed boosts is essential to competing in all modes of play. In the trick and destruction events, we do have some traditional power-ups. There is something called a trick ring that when hit, will slow down everything but your skater so you can do way more tricks than normal while in the air. There are also point multiplier power-ups that you can collect and will multiply whatever trick combo you have going. These are also pretty essential to beating some of our later trick events. Oh, and Tony Hawk fans will definitely recognize the S-K-A-T-E letters. Collecting all of those letters will double your total score.

FiringSquad: Obviously the game is generating lots of attention because of the way it is controlled by the Wii remote. Can you give us some idea of how hard it was to get the controller to work with the game design you had for Downhill Jam?

Alex Ness: It wasn’t very hard at all. First of all, conceptually, it was already pretty much figured out for us. We all know that when a lot of people play a racing game, they often instinctively turn and tilt the controller in an effort to steer their car or player, Since the Wii Remote is motion sensitive, we thought this would be a great chance have that steering motion actually steer the skater in the game. Getting this to work with the Wii Remote was very easy. Of course, getting the sensitivity tuned just right and all of the mechanics tweaked required a lot more time but just getting things up and running was super quick. We realized right away that the steering mechanic would be perfect for the game and like I said, it was all tuning from there.

FiringSquad: What sort of things can the person do with the Wii remote in the game that would be impossible with a conventional wireless remote?

Alex Ness: The steering method I mentioned above. Plus we also have some other motion sensitive mechanics. When you acquire a speed boost, you can use it by shaking the Wii Remote back and forth. Shaking also allows your skater to get up faster after a bail. Forward and back flips in the air can be performed by tilting the Wii Remote up or down respectively. Pulling back quickly before a jump is also how we initiate no complys and boneless ollies.

FiringSquad: What multiplayer features will Downhill Jam have and are you dissapointed that the console would not allow for the development of online multiplayer before the release of the game?

Alex Ness: We have a split-screen multi-player mode for 2-4 player and it’s incredibly fun.

FiringSquad: What other gameplay features do you think are important?

Alex Ness: I think combat is another cool aspect of our game. Knocking other skaters off of their boards is a very effective strategy to winning races and it’s incredibly satisfying. Another thing I like a lot is our ghost feature. We have saved ghost runs down each of our events. Not just a high score, you can actually see our skater on their run while you play. People can compete directly against our ghosts and if they win, they unlock what we call the super jewel ghost. The super jewel ghost is basically the best anyone here can do. Beat the super jewel ghost and it means you’re better than we are. Suffice to say, this is ridiculously difficult. I’d be amazed if anyone can do it.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the graphical look of the game?

Alex Ness: It’s a little different than the standard Tony Hawk look. They lean much more on the sign of realism than we do. We felt like we needed our look to not only differentiate us a little but also reflect our less realistic, more arcade-y game. Skaters are larger and both they and the environments have a little more of a hand-painted look as opposed to photo-realistic. That said, it’s not a huge step away from the Tony Hawk series either.

FiringSquad: How do you feel about making the game on the Wii? Is it as easy and as cheap as Nintendo claims it is?

Alex Ness: We have really, really enjoyed working with the Wii. It has been fairly easy to get stuff running, like I’ve said before. And we feel like the controller is going to open up a lot of new, exciting possibilities for gameplay.

FiringSquad: What is the current status of the game's progress and will it be ready for the Wii launch?

Alex Ness: We are hopefully down to our final version and we will ready for the Wii launch.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam?

Alex Ness: Just that this has really been a lot of fun. I love the Tony Hawk series and I think what Neversoft has built is awesome. The core mechanics are most important to me in any game and they’ve nailed it down perfectly for skating. It was cool to be able to try and take those to a fast, exciting downhill skating environment. I think the result is a totally addictive, fun game. Again, I want to say that it’s been really great to work on the Wii. At first, I was a little bit skeptical but after playing our game and a few of the other titles in development, I am totally sold on this system. I think it can lead to some real changes in the console gaming world.

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