The Tony Hawk series has really made its mark on the gaming world over the past several years, more or less creating a subgenre for extreme sports titles. The DS versions of the franchise have been fun little games that have made good use of the Nintendo WiFi Connection. Leo Zuniga, the Lead Game Designer on the upcoming DS version of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, sat down with us to answer a few questions on the DS skater.

Are you implementing stylus controls or any of the DS’s other hardware features?
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground continues to take advantage of several DS features. We’ve got the ever popular graphic editor that allows you to draw your custom logo and deck art. We’ve got the new touch screen gesture challenge, where the player calls out tricks by drawing gestures using the stylus.

How does this expand/improve on the other DS Tony Hawk titles?
The new art style is the first thing people will notice, I think the art team did a fantastic job at bringing a fresh look to the game. Although we all love the toon-shading style from the previous titles, we felt it was time to revamp the style and bring it closer to the other platforms’ look. The game is really pushing the limits on the DS platform. We’ve got a variety of levels that are much bigger than our prior DS games and packed with slick combo lines for everyone to enjoy.

Our story mode progression is deeper than ever: players will be able to choose from two paths, Career or Hardcore skating styles. There are over 110 challenges with individual AM, PRO and SICK levels (you choose the difficulty level in each challenge). This setup makes the game accessible to new players while presenting a challenging experience to our experienced players our there.

The new aggro kick move is a team favorite. It adds a quick burst of speed to a trick combo. The aggro kick can happen at any point within a combo, there’s a timing element to it, and it feels great when you hit it just right.

My overall favorite though is the real skating videos. For the first time on the DS we’re able to pack in a clip for each pro skater (over 8 minutes of footage total). This is a real treat whenever you meet a pro during story mode you can sit back and watch them pull off some crazy tricks.

Are any of the team members skaters?
We’ve got a couple of skaters on the team, myself being one of them. I was a hardcore street skater during my teenage years, and it was a lot of fun especially growing up in Los Angeles, lots of places to skate. My first job in the industry was testing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater PS1, luck was on my side.

Through the years I’ve met several kids who really enjoyed the game and actually decided to try it out for real. Skateboarding has made a nice come-back thanks to the x-games and videogames like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

How closely do you work with Tony Hawk? Does he give you feedback on game play and moves he’d like to see, or are you free to do what you want?
Tony is involved in the overall direction of the franchise, from the very beginning he would help out the guys at Neversoft making sure the game reflected some of the core skating elements. He also goes through mo-cap session to make sure the tricks come straight from the source.

Neversoft is great at what they do and they support us tremendously while developing our DS game.

Can we expect online play like in Tony Hawk: American Sk8land? If so, what modes can we expect and how many players will it support?
We’ve got 4 player multiplayer with 10 different modes. Some of the multiplayer modes are DS exclusive such as Red Light Green Light and Balloon Explosion. Red light green light is all about trick combos, but only landing them on green light (otherwise you score is reduced). Balloon explosion is a new favorite: people perform tricks to make your balloon explode, so you’ve got to keep up the score to pass over the balloon. We’ve still got the classic favorite modes such as Horse, Score and Combo scores.

The community site is back, allowing players to share their art and high scores with everyone out there.

What are you doing next?
My new project hasn’t been officially announced.

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground DS is the best so far, we really made sure to address fans’ requests and produce a game that the team is extremely proud of. We hope you have a blast playing it and laying down your best tricks.