Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam [DS]

Yahoo! Video Games: Give us a bit of an overview of the game. This is the first racing game in the Tony Hawk franchise -- why is now the right time for that?

David Nathanielsz: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for Nintendo DS picks up where Tony Hawk's American Sk8land DS left off and shoots off into uncharted territory! We had many of the team members from Sk8land DS and the team just went over the top with what they wanted to pull off in Downhill Jam. We blew out all the stops with Downhill Jam, so who knows where we'll go for the next Tony Hawk DS game! The team crammed way bigger locations, more multiplayer modes, 4-player Wi-Fi, voice chat, co-op gameplay, more community features, customizable pants, shirts, decks, a crazy story and cutscenes, all topped off with glorious 60fps update. It was an ambitious project but the team pulled out the Tony magic and got it done.

Taking the Tony Hawk franchise in a new direction was exciting for us. Especially on the Nintendo DS where a fast paced racer is missing from the market. It's a logical extension of the Tony Hawk games because speed and tricking and racing competition is such a fun combo -- check it out and you will see!

YVG: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam appears to be the first Nintendo DS title with voice chat -- is that correct? How does that work?

DN: Metroid had a voice chat feature in their lobby, but not in-game. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam will be the first Nintendo DS title to have voice chat active in-game. It was a challenge and we had to pull out the secret sauce to keep things running smoothly, but it was worth it. We hope that even more players will take advantage of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. It's a lot of fun and there is a ton to do on Wi-Fi with Downhill Jam. On Sk8land DS, we had over 60,000 player contributed pieces of artwork via Wi-Fi. We expect that number to be even higher on Downhill Jam DS!

YVG: Is the voice used for other things? In the last game you could record your own clips for bails and such.

DN: People really enjoyed the ability to record their own quips in Sk8land, so we made sure it was back in Downhill Jam DS.