After seven games in seven years, the Tony Hawk series is still going strong, though it's hard to look forward to each new entry the way we used to. The core gameplay has changed very little, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there are some real flaws that should have been ironed out long ago. American Wasteland throws in BMX, an expanded Classic Mode, and a slightly different take on Story Mode. It ends up being pretty much the same thing as T.H.U.G. 2 but with new levels, and that's going to sit just fine with some fans while leaving others to say "Well, maybe next year…" yet again.

American Wasteland takes place in and around Los Angeles, which has been shrunk, stylized, and chopped up into nine large areas that are connected to each other via tunnels that mask the loading time for the next area. Skating from one area to another can get to be laborious after a while, so there's a bus that can take you directly to about half of the levels, and from those it shouldn't take long to reach the remaining areas. Of course, most regions are inaccessible at the beginning of Story Mode, and they are unlocked one by one as you complete missions. The compartmentalized nature of the game world, particularly the fact that the areas don't connect to each other in a believable fashion, leads to the feeling that this supposedly new design is actually just a different way of presenting the tried and true sequence of levels from every other Tony Hawk game. To be fair, the series has incorporated elements of the "living world" idea for quite some time, with non-playable characters walking around and the freedom to go virtually anywhere within the gigantic levels. But don't be fooled into thinking that this newest game does much to advance those ideas.

A more interesting and substantial addition is the BMX bike, which can be found lying around in every level and can be used freely while not in a mission. The bike has its own control style and a completely different trick set, and its physics are just as realistic (read: not very) as the skateboard's. It's a huge improvement over the gimmick vehicles in the last game. Though you couldn't say BMX is a completely new way to play the game, it is worth checking out and does add some variety, especially when a few missions require it.

One other cool addition is two-player Classic Mode. This alternative to Story Mode sends you through half a dozen levels from past Tony Hawk games, some completely remodeled, to complete old school goals like earning high scores and finding the secret tape. With two players working together, you can pound out goals more easily by splitting up the duties. For instance, one person can look for "S", "K", and "A" while the other finds "T" and "E". It's a great idea that makes more sense than most of the goofy competitive modes (though you can still play those, too). The only problem is that it makes the already easy Classic Mode go by even faster; two decent players can probably blow through every level in an hour, while it might take a solo player a bit longer. Either way, Classic Mode is a brief but enjoyable way to play the game.

The focus, however, is on Story Mode, which actually tells a story for once. As a nameless "country bumpkin" skater who just moved out to L.A., you meet a feisty young lady who introduces you to the seedy, highly competitive underground world of skate punks. (It seems that no one in this city is interested in talking to you until you bust out a wicked combo with X trick on Y ramp within Z time limit.) Pretty soon, you end up in a secret skate ranch and start looking for pieces to pimp it out. Those pieces tend to be chunks of public property, which you have to smash up and smuggle out of the different neighborhoods in L.A. As you build up the ranch into a skater goon's paradise, you start to learn more about the ranch's gruff owner and its mysterious past. This stuff is hardly high-brow, in fact it's campy and overly dramatic, but it's far less obnoxious than the Team Bam antics of T.H.U.G. 2. Building up the skate ranch is good fun, as it seems to change dramatically every time you go back to visit.

It's all very linear, despite attempts to make the game seem otherwise, and it's over quickly thanks to most missions being really, almost insultingly easy. The rest are infuriating; there's no in-between, and there's little organization in how the difficulty ramps up, making for a game that can go from pitifully easy to throw-your-controller hard and back to easy in the space of three missions. With the patience of a mountain, you'll eventually make it through and beat Story Mode. From there, you could retry on a harder difficulty level, play through Classic Mode, try out the multiplayer modes, or lose yourself in the extensive Create-A-Modes (Create-A-Skater, Create-A-Level, Create-A-Trick, Create-A-Graphic), which are the same as last year's. So, there is plenty to keep you busy.

American Wasteland contains several bugs, some minor and others game-breaking. Twice, the cut-scene voices cut out on me and I had to save and reset the system to fix it. The cut-scenes have many other blemishes, such as your character looking different than he does in gameplay despite the scenes being rendered by the game engine. The subtitles rarely match what's actually being said. Then there's the bug that won't let you enter shops, which means you can't beat certain missions and will have to start over in a new game file. And there are still loads of clipping bugs in which your skater will land inside of a ramp and not be able to jump out, or you'll jump in a certain spot and be launched 100 feet into the air for no reason. After seven games, there's simply no excuse for these problems to still exist.

Nevertheless, this is a fun game that will keep you occupied for a while. I initially hoped the "continuous world" thing would give the series some much needed change, but Story Mode is really not much different for it. 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. If you're a Tony Hawk veteran, consider renting rather than buying, because you'll blow through the new material quickly. Newer players will get more value out of holdovers like the Create-A-Modes and multiplayer.