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Platform: Xbox Genre: Sports Publisher: Activision Developer: Toys for Bob ESRB: E (Everyone) Released: Q4 2003 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Disney’s
Extreme Skate Adventure
Score: 8.2 / 10 |
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Pros: -
Uses the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 game engine to perfection -
Stellar visual presentation with the signature Disney/Pixar style - Gives younger gamers a fun title to play without a high difficulty level
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Cons: -
Not much of a challenge for gamers over the age of 10 -
Repetitively short Radio Disney soundtrack; not bad tunes but not enough
of them - For a game targeted at younger gamers, heavy dosage of subtly and not-so-subtly placed advertising branding seems a little too intrusive and nefarious in nature
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Related Links: Review: Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (Gamecube) Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Xbox)
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"DESA should be given serious consideration by all parents looking for a good game for younger children whether for themselves or some good family competition, especially if you are a parent that can overlook the nefarious advertising."
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Kingdom
Hearts for the PlayStation 2 proved that you could combine the Disney
cast of animated stars with a well-established game series that you
wouldn’t ever expect to see Disney characters in and successfully
create a solid and enjoyable video game. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that what SquareSoft pulled off with Kingdom Hearts Toys For Bob duplicates by fusing Disney characters with Neversoft’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 engine and coming up with the kid-friendly Disney’s Extreme Skating Adventure (DESA).
I
point out kid-friendly, because unlike the more mature demographic of
Kingdom Hearts players, DESA is really a game that’s targeted to the
under-10 crowd who still listens to Radio Disney and watches the Disney
Channel, where all of the characters in DESA practically make daily
appearances. Also,
despite the usage of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 engine, which helped
create the toughest and most challenging THPS game yet, DESA is
extremely easy to play. This is obviously done purposely so that young
game players will be able to enjoy playing without much frustration, but
it limits the audience that could possibly be interested in a solid
skateboarding game, Disney characters or not.
Even
though DESA is too easy for anybody older than 10, Toys For Bob does an
amazing job nonetheless creating a very fun skating game for its
intended audience with the unexpected element of animated Disney
characters shredding and skating all over familiar locales from Toy
Story 2, Tarzan, and The Lion King animated films. Yes, that’s Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Tarzan and Jane (in their much-younger form, to appeal to the young game players), Simba, Rafiki, Pumbaa & Timon, and a host of other characters from the above-mentioned three Disney movies doing like Tony Hawk. Although they aren’t playable as skaters, there are more than a few cameos from supporting cast members throughout the game, such as Toy Story 2’s Hamm (no cheese).
What
makes DESA so fun is the great skating action throughout the various
levels with a bunch of animated Disney stars. It’s totally unexpected
to see Buzz Lightyear grinding and flying around Pizza Planet on a
galactic skateboard. But with the use of the THPS4 game engine, even
Disney characters are 60-frames-per-second sweet skate veterans. DESA’s
both biggest problem and biggest appeal is its challenge level. For
older gamers, you won’t have a difficult time at all breezing through
the game, because the presence of the THPS4 engine is somewhat lessened
by the toned-down difficulty. Most gamers who have played a THPS game
will be able to get through the entire game in a few days. But the
appeal is for younger gamers who may not have been able to successfully
play THPS games because of their lack of gaming skills. Now, with DESA,
they are able skate like a pro, albeit with a Disney character, not a
professional skater. That
may somewhat explain the inclusion of the handful of “real” skaters
that are in the game. Not shy to take advantage of any type of positive
publicity, Toys For Bob and Disney actually had a contest to find real
pre-teen skaters to include as playable characters in the game, giving
the young DESA players someone to relate to as a real-life role model. What’s
a little bit disconcerting and scary is the sheer amount of advertising
persuasion doused throughout DESA, particularly in Olliewood, where
created characters or the “real-life” young skaters skate. Nokia and
McDonald’s are just two of the most blatant branding attempts heavily
pasted all over Olliewood. Usually I don’t mind seeing name-branding in a game, because it can give a title some realistic “cred” that it wouldn’t have without it. But I have mixed feelings as a parent seeing my kids being smacked right over the head with corporate labeling while playing a game. It just has that “saturate you with advertising until you buy from us” message that can be downright scary or almost nefarious in nature.
Gameplay
in DESA is just as great as THPS4, which should be expected, even with
the Disney influence throughout. Instead of Tony Hawk ripping up the
asphalt, it’s young Tarzan shredding the human camp. Just like THPS4,
there are level-specific goals to meet, like spelling S-K-A-T-E or
getting high scores. Once these goals are met, more skaters and levels
can be unlocked. Each character has unique goals, and there are plenty
of unlockables to discover. Level design displays a lot of creativity. Buzz Lightyear and the Toy Story 2 crew can be found skating the confines of Andy’s Room and Pizza Planet. Tarzan and Jane swing into a jungle tree house and Clayton’s ship. Each of the game’s levels is huge with plenty of terrain to explore.
Character
design retains a good level of Disney touches, with a colorful splash of
Disney animation. But although they are well animated, they leave room
for improvement considering their pedigree in the cartoon realm. Good
tunes that you can hear everyday on the local Radio Disney station are
wafting all over the soundtrack, but there is not enough variety.
Listening to the same tunes from Lil’ Romeo and Smashmouth over and
over can get to be annoying quickly for the older parent player. The
game does have the Xbox soundtrack feature available for a homebrewed
music flavor. Surprisingly
there isn’t a lot of character dialogue that you could have expected
from a game with so much Disney elements in it. Each character does say
various individualized phrases while skating or even more when a
character bails. But most of what dialogue is spoken is disappointingly
heard few and far between in a game that could have been a lot more fun
with more funny phrases to hear. A big plus for parents who have more than one child in the DESA’s target demographic is the multiplayer modes, which only allows two people at once to play, but in my household at least, helped keep the peace between two girls just wanting to have skating fun at the same time. Another feature that kids will enjoy is the create-a-skater feature that gives them the opportunity to “star” in the game themselves.
If
you have youngsters in the household who were relegated to only being
able to watch while you played THPS4, DESA is the perfect opportunity to
give them the controls of some similar skating video game fun with some
of the popular Disney universe stars. DESA won’t have much shelf life
for anybody over the age of 10, but provides a good game for some parent
versus young children gaming that there are sadly very few chances to
play in today’s gaming world. Most
titles are either targeted directly at young players or a more mature
audience. It’s rare to find a great game that parents can actually
play against their children. DESA and its less taxing difficulty level
actually gives children a chance to defeat their parents in a video
game. Again,
if you’re an older gamer without any children or young siblings, DESA
will not be much lasting fun for you, no matter how much you enjoy
skateboarding games. But DESA should be given serious consideration by
all parents looking for a good game for younger children whether for
themselves or some good family competition, especially if you are a
parent that can overlook the nefarious advertising. -
Lee Cieniawa (October 11, 2003)
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