To many gamers, myself included, Crash Bandicoot was a character who lived and died in the 90's. The first entry was one of the first crown jewels in Sony's lineup, and the two sequels were the finest platformers of their generation. Sure, they didn't offer near the amount of freedom of Mario 64 or the limitless imagination of Nights, but Crash had it where it counted in the gameplay department. With the advent of the PS2, Naughty Dog moved onto Jak, and most loyalties moved right over to their new superstar. Crash wasn't dead, but his severance as Sony's mascot and some less than compelling adventures from new developers removed him from the A list of platformers.

Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam just recently came out to the PS2 after spending a few months now on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii. Downhill Jam takes away the freedom of exploration and sheer openness of previous Tony Hawk titles and instead puts the player in races against other skaters and the clock. What amounts is a Tony Hawk game that’s never been easier to get into, but at the same time is very easy, very straight-forward (literally) and boring fast.