Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is a 2005 skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the seventh entry in the Tony Hawk's series and was released initially for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005 in North America on October 18 and October 28 in Europe, with several ports for other systems released later.
American Wasteland is the first Tony Hawk's game to support Xbox Live; online play was previously limited to the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. The Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance versions were released as Tony Hawk's American Sk8land on the same day as the console versions. The DS version features Wi-Fi capabilities and was the first third-party DS game to have online support.
Gameplay
American Wasteland is the first game in the Tony Hawk's franchise that advertised and allowed the possibility for players to play in one vast level via story mode, which actually seamlessly connects a number of levels without loading times in between, along with also being the first game in the series that allows to freely commandeer stray bicycles and perform freestyle BMX techniques similar to skateboarding. A new maneuver, the Bert Slide, was added to skateboarding controls. In the September 2005 edition of Game Informer, a map was shown displaying American Wastelands Los Angeles with an insert of an overhead view of the Boston stage from Underground 2 for comparison. The Boston level appeared to be about three quarters the size of one American Wasteland area, with the exception of the "Vans Skatepark" and "Casino" areas.
Story
The game begins with the protagonist, a male skater from Kentucky, boarding a bus to Los Angeles to escape his delinquent past. Upon arriving in Hollywood, a group of skateboarding punks, led by Joe, punch the player character and steal his bag. The protagonist meets Mindy, a local artist, who helps him fit in through wardrobe changes and a series of skating challenges led by her friends. After, the player confronts Joe and challenges him to a skating contest for his bag, which the player wins.
The protagonist observes Mindy drawing a skatepark in her sketchpad which she reveals will be a part of her magazine titled "American Wasteland" and that it is the Skate Ranch, an actual "locals-only" park. After the protagonist stops a local protest, Mindy decides to take the player to Beverly Hills, where he uses his skate skills to impress the inhabitants of the ranch led by Iggy VanZandt. They agree to let him in to the skatepark, and allow him to stay after he gathers wood for a half-pipe. While the player character watches Iggy skate, the group reveals that he was previously a professional skateboarder, but he couldn't handle the publicity and dropped out of the public eye. Mindy suggests that the protagonist obtain pieces for the skate ranch, which he gets throughout the game.
The player character participates in the Tony Hawk AmJam in downtown Los Angeles. The protagonist wins and is interviewed by Tony Hawk. After the player publicly reveals his association with the presumed-dead Iggy, the LAPD arrests VanZandt for a string of past minor offenses. Seeking amends for landing Iggy in jail, the player character requests help from VanZandt's old friends: the Z-Boys, including Tony Alva. They agree to do so if he prove his old-school skating skills. After he does so, the Z-Boys show an old photo of "Green Pipes Point": a legendary skate run that the protagonist recognizes as now being the Skate Ranch. The player character decides to have it dug again to make up for getting Iggy arrested. To that effect, the protagonist meets Alva's oil rig worker friend Mega, who decides to help the player after the protagonist completes a series of errands for him.
While Mega works on digging up the Green Pipes Point, the player learns from Mindy that Skate Ranch member Boone has been kidnapped by the "Black Widowz", his old street gang, and needs rescuing from East Los Angeles. However, the Black Widowz own the only tunnel leading to the area, leading the protagonist to join the gang to be allowed entry. After he passes the initiation tests, he enters East LA and rescues Boone.