Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure

The Tony Hawk skateboarding game franchise now has multiple titles available for just about every gaming platform. Recognizing that the atmosphere, intensity, and language of these games if often inappropriate for younger players, the Tony Hawk team and Disney paired up to create Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure. The combination of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater engine and known loveable Disney characters is a sure win, right? Well, maybe not.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure allows kids to skate around worlds, earning points and solving puzzles so as to open additional worlds and unlock additional skaters and accessories (skateboards, apparel, and so on). Worlds are based on Disney themes, Buzz and Woody skate around Andy's Room and Pizza Planet, Pumbaa and Timon skate around the jungles, Tarzan and Jane skate all over Clayton's ship, and so on. The worlds are vast, and there are lots of them. Skating and exploring the worlds will entertain kids, at least initially. To complete worlds puzzles must be solved. These are usually a series of objects to be retrieved by skating up to them.

Each skater (both kid skaters and Disney character skaters) have different skill-levels, although there seemed to be no real difference between them in actual game play. It is also possible to create your own character, with extensive control over clothing and body characteristics (this feature was a big hit).

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is definitely targeted at the pre-teen crowd. The screens, the animation, the characters and their catch-phrases, and the rather juvenile humor are all designed to appeal to the young (as opposed to the young at heart).

Taking this into account the game has several real problems.

For starters, game play tends to be too difficult for young players. Not being able to complete missions will really frustrate kids, and my kids really did have a hard time completing missions. The skateboard moves have cutesy names (which differ based on the character you are playing as), and the characters responses to falling flat on their faces or butts will amuse (the first dozen or so times), but learning those moves will likely be beyond the capabilities of the players that this game will most appeal to, by which time those amusing responses will have started to become downright annoying.

In other words, the players who would have the skills to master the moves so as to complete missions and advance in the game won't want to play this game because it really is juvenile. And kids who know and love the characters and worlds will find the game too troublesome and frustrating.

The other aspect of the game that is highly inappropriate (considering the target demographic) is the amount of in game advertising. And there is nothing subtle about it. One mission involves obtaining Nokia ring tones in a specified amount of time (going so far as to provide the exact phone model number), and another involves delivering food for MacDonald's to win a pair of red clown's feet. Product placement is one thing, this goes way beyond what I'd consider acceptable.

Ironically, the youngest players in our household were the ones who liked this game the most. No, they've never completed a mission, and no, they don't even care to. They just like pushing buttons on the controller to make Andy and Tarzan skate around and fall off, and laugh hysterically at the silly one-liners.

If you are looking for a serious skateboarding game, this is decidedly not it. If you are looking for simple entertainment using well known Disney characters, then this may fit the bill initially, but kids will get frustrated by it quickly, and it is sure to join the stack of games they don't play.

Summary: This is one of the worst gaming investments we've made. We'd not recommend it at all, unless you find a used copy going cheap.

Note: This game is also supported on PS2 and GameCube. As per company provided product details the game should be identical on all platforms, however we've only played it on Xbox, and this review is based only on the game as played.