Disney has unleashed another game for us to play and this time it is of the skateboard variety, so there’s no surprise that there’s a wide selection of Disney characters available – Buzz Light-year, Simba, Timon and Pumbaa and even Tarzan. But will this game come close to becoming a new type of skateboarding game that everyone wants to play?

Gameplay:
First thing you’ll notice when playing this game is how similar it plays to the Tony Hawks series in fact it is the same game engine used and what we have here is no more than the Tony Hawk label put in a Disney environment as you can play as quite a few Disney character, and all the landscapes and environments from the films. Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure has little to none storyline and allow you to play a single player mode collecting statistic power ups and fulfilling missions to unlock characters, skate parks if that’s what you can call them and additional features to allow you to create your own skater. Then you have a free-skate mode to allow you to tweak it around and do what the hell you like, just like single player mode but without the annoying missions. There’s also the ability for multiplayer in 2-player mode which can be constricting as it doesn’t allow you to use the characters and skate parks that you usually can in single player mode which is disappointing really.

The main game as I’ve already said plays like Tony Hawks and there’s a jump, grab, grind and manual button also using the triggers to spin. The game feels a little slow while you are skating around but you have to bear in mind you’re probably skating around as a miniscule Disney character so you’re bound to have little momentum but this is frustrating as you don’t get the feel of skating and slows up the gameplay essentially. There are only a few character’s of Disney and mainly the newer one’s it would have been nice to see some older classics in there, where’s Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck? Most of the environments are very large in size and offer many items to grind on such as branches, moon craters and even dominoes! There are a set of actual kids you can chose to play as in the game who have obviously won this as a prize, but this removes the fantasy element as playing as a Disney character really. You can also create your own character which is always entertaining but serves little purpose towards the game.

The game is entertaining for the first few hours but really needed a larger multiplayer mode to keep it going or more of a storyline to keep it going, apart from the fact this game mimics Tony Hawks it is just an extra bit of cash in Disney’s wallet really. The single player mode will keep you going for quite a while, that is if you really can stand it that long. The game aims itself at kids really and anyone who has played a Tony Hawks game will not want to play this for very long at all, however the game doe’s introduce a child into the world of skateboarding and gaming if anything.

Graphics:
The graphics in the game are very good and are easily up to Xbox standard but nothing particularly special here that needs mentioning. All the Disney characters look very nice and authentic to their counterparts. But some improvement could have been made here really.

Sound:
Sound is very good in this game there is a half-decent official soundtrack of all genres, which suits the Disney theme very nicely but there is also the option of having your own sound track but it doesn’t feel right in this game. I guess that depends what sort of music you listen to but for once a good effort on the original soundtrack as it suits the game nicely.

Longevity:
This game will last any child or Disney fan a while with a wealth of unlockables in single player mode but this won’t interest many other people who have played or Tony Hawks or have not played a skating game at all. The multiplayer mode is only two-player and doesn’t allow you to choose a lot of skate parks or characters to use unfortunately. But singe missions can become repetitive and boring unless you’re going for those Disney Extras, this game can become very tiring quite quickly.

Round Up:
Disney Extreme Skating Adventure is ok as a game but it is all too evident that this has been made straight off the Tony Hawk engine and no dynamic thought has been put into it to make a productive, playable game. What we are left with is Disney trying to cash in on a genre that already has a lead game in its genre. This game is just here to sell itself out as Reel Big Fish ironically point out in the game. Only buy this for a Disney fan or a newbie skater fan otherwise stay away, £40 can be spent much better on Tony Hawks 4 shall we say.

Pros:

• Has Nice graphics
  
• Great Kids game, needed for Xbox
  
• Some nice Disney authenticity
  

  Cons:
  

  • Becomes repetitive quite soon
    
  • Has a small market at only Disney fans really
    
  • Game engine based on Tony Hawks (which is much better)
    
  • So much more could have been made out of the game