Metacritic Games

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (GameCube)

No levels. No load times. Just never-ending action that doesn't stop until you leave the game. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland gives you - for the first time ever in a Hawk game - the freedom to skate, or bike, throughout a rich, expansive open environment. Once you arrive in Los Angeles, the vast city that gave birth to skate culture, the sky's the limit as you progress through the Wasteland story and choose missions that will have you immersed in the action without ever skating the same line twice. New on the board tricks include the Bert slides, Natas spins handstands, and one-footed grinds and manuals. New off the board tricks include wall runs, wall flips, and charged jumps. Choose Board Or Bike: For the first time, you can choose to ride BMX bikes throughout the entire game, with all-new physics, a BMX specific control system and several BMX-specific goals. Customize Like Crazy: Enter and explore dozens of shops in game to customize your gear and your look! Check out skate shops, barbershops, tattoo parlors, and clothing stores as you accomplish goals and earn cash. [Activision]

Activision
Extreme Sports
Players: 2
T (Teen)
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Released October 18, 2005

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

76 / 100

Critic Reviews

90 GameSpy
It tries really hard to please both jaded vets and exuberant fanboys, and for the most part, it succeeds, even if the story mode's a little short and on the easy side.
90 PGNx Media
A very solid game overall. The tweaks to the core gameplay, the addition of the BMX moves, and the inclusion of a massive city to skate around in are definitely appreciated.
90 Nintendo Power
It takes what was great from the Underground games and strips out all the lame antics. [Dec 2005, p.115]
90 Nintendojo
American Wasteland creates a near-perfect balance that all free roaming games strive to achieve.
87 GameZone
The only thing bad about this is that the story is really short especially if you are a veteran Tony Hawk player, other than that this game is a blast to play.
87 Next Level Gaming
I can see the series getting a little tired, and it doesn't quite have that magical "aura" that the first couple did. But nonetheless there's plenty to keep you busy.
85 IGN
As a whole, the story, attitude and overall focus of the game is much better this time around than what we've seen from the two "THUG" games.
85 Stuff
Sure, you can choose BMX bikes instead of traditional boards, and the soundtrack of punk covers is the best freaking Tony Hawk soundtrack yet, bar none, but whether or not you'll love this game completely depends on how full your Hawk tank already is.
84 Cheat Code Central
The story mode is fun, funny and yet not absurd enough to wonder what drugs were abused during development time.
83 Game Informer
Home to some of the greatest gameplay that you'll ever encounter, but unless you compete online, it mostly goes to waste. [Dec 2005, p.154]
83 eToychest
With the camera and control issues of "THUG2" corrected, a fresh, compelling story mode, and the highlights of the series up to this point in tow, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland stands as the best game to bear his name thus far.
80 Game Chronicles
While American Wasteland may have the gameplay nailed down, it falls short of being great on the Nintendo GameCube. If you really want to experience the true greatness that is Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland then you’ll need to play it on another system.
80 NintendoWorldReport
American Wasteland ends up being yet another sequel that feels more like an expansion pack, but when the levels are this big and well designed, that's not such a bad thing.
80 AceGamez
An old game in new clothing.
80 ZTGameDomain
While the Gamecube version is lacking some of the bonuses of the PS2 and Xbox versions, it is still very solid.
78 Da Gameboyz
For fans of the genre, American Wasteland will deliver more of the same, with an added beefy story mode option that flushes out a fairly interesting narrative, moving the game up a notch from pervious titles.
75 GameSpot
While the gameplay in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is still sharp, and the game still looks and sounds just fine, this seventh installment just seems to lack that special spark that made the series so much fun in the first place.
73 BonusStage
The thought of pulling a combo across an entire city with no load times is very appealing, but unless you have perfect balance, nimble fingers, and patience, you probably won’t pull it off.
72 Electronic Gaming Monthly
Tony, you are lookin' haggard. Even though I like American Wasteland's country-boy-in-the-city story line much better than last year's World Destruction Tour's, the annual sequels will drive this franchise into the ground if publisher Activision doesn't take a break, and soon.
70 Gamer 2.0
With the braindead goals, non-charismatic cast of characters, and relatively limited level list, the game is unfortunately relegated to rental status, with its best points making us reminiscent of the days when you actually had to be good to beat a Tony Hawk game.
70 Kombo
A step up from last year’s sequel to "Underground," but it still has its problems.
70 Play Magazine
A free-play mode returns Hawk to his origins and here, the game does not disappoint one bit with its go forth and explore approach. [Dec 2005, p.66]
67 Game Revolution
Kudos to Neversoft and Activision for creating an amazing game, the sole competitor in its self-created genre, and curses upon them for distilling it to the point of absurdity.
60 Edge Magazine
The title is just painfully apt: never has a free-roaming structure brought so little to improve the quality of a game's world. The mooted open-ended environments of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland feel like a fallacy, a bleak repackaging for hocking the game to a jaded audience. [Dec 2005, p.107]
60 games(TM)
When only a couple of challenges require you to break the million point barrier, only the weakest players will have trouble acing the game in hours. [Christmas 2005, p.107]
40 Computer Games Magazine
All told, it's no big loss if you decided to give Tony Hawk a rest for a year. [Jan 2006, p.91]