Tony Hawk: American Wasteland (THAW) is the newest of an ever increasing line of Tony Hawk skateboarding games. Its claim to fame is the elimination of in-game loading time. This is something that game developers should be trying harder to implement. In many ways THAW is an improvement over the earlier games. However, other than a new story, it doesn't really bring anything new to the genre.

That being said, we still thought that this game was great. We can't recall a Tony Hawk game with such a fantastic in-game tutorial. Other than assuming that you know what an Ollie is, and that you realize that pretty much all tricks can only be done from a jump, the game is really quite unassuming; which is great for new players. Experienced Tony Hawk players will step easily into THAW.

In terms of graphics, THAW, is good, but not really much of an improvement over THUG2. However, they have added a clothing store and a hair-stylist as part of the game, allowing for a wide variety of in-game character customization; which is a nice touch.

Sound effects and music are good as usual, but are nothing spectacular. At some points the voice acting was almost cheesy, and the sub-titles didn't always exactly match what was spoken. This is really just nit-picking though, as generally, the dialog was hilarious.

The game play is where this game really shined. As we noted before, THAW has eliminated the need for in-game loading screens, at least within the level that you're currently playing. Technically, removing loading time doesn't really add to a game, but we've disliked a lot of games as a result of too much loading time. This definitely wasn't one of them. As we indicated before, THAW offers no major improvements to the series, but lots of small ones that really help. Examples are the 'compass' added to the game window, or the icons that appear over things of interest. Additionally, the character movement is fluid and beautiful, especially on the bicycle.

All in all, this is a well built game. Its easy to learn, beautifully executed, a fun to boot. We don't feel that this is a game just for skaters, although they'll probably enjoy it the most.