Toys for Bob, the studio behind the first two games in the excellent space strategy/RPG franchise Star Control, is currently preparing Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for the Wii launch this fall. Downhill Jam takes takes Neversoft's long running skateboarding franchise, puts it in a downhill racing context, and introduces a new but intuitive control scheme built around the console's motion-sensing capabilities. At a recent Activision press event, I had the opportunity to get some hands on time with the game, as well as speak with lead designer Toby Schadt.

As a long time Tony Hawk player, I expected the disassociation of directional control from trick control to be disorienting and confusing, but it was surprisingly intuitive and took me no more than about a minute to internalize. All directional input is handled with the tilt sensor, which includes not just turning left and right, but also balancing while grinding. One nice thing about the control method is that while grinding, you can continue performing tricks with the d-pad without having to put less attention on balancing, since the two systems are independent. The rest of the trick system will be familiar to past Tony Hawk players. You hold down a button to crouch and speed up on a straightaway, then release to ollie or perform other aerial maneuvres. To tack on additional tricks and create combos, use the face buttons in conjunction with the d-pad. At several moments, generally following a failed trick or getting passed by another character, my years of old school Tony Hawk instincts would kick in and I would start attempting to use the d-pad to move around. Considering how quickly I picked up the basic mechanics, I suspect that those moments would become less and less frequent fairly soon.

Toys for Bob also hopes to be able to some day develop an authentic followup to Star Control II, with 1996's Star Control 3 having been developed by another studio. If you would like to see Toys for Bob get their wish--and you should--head over to this page to learn how to help. Studio president Paul Reiche, who co-designed Star Control II, has been working on preliminary designs for a hypothetical new Star Control game, but parent company Activision still needs to be convinced of the project's feasibility.