Just in time before the Tony Hawk franchise re-invents itself with Tony Hawk's Underground, here comes Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure. Based on the Tony Hawk 4 engine, the game keeps intact everything we love about the Tony Hawk series while adding a new twist with themes based on popular Disney movies. However, like most of Disney's games, Extreme Skate Adventure is aimed toward the younger audience, which means lots of cutesy, cartoony visuals (especially with the human characters) and easier gameplay.

Anybody remotely familiar with the Tony Hawk series can pick up this game and immediately start grinding away and tearing up the courses. Even beginners will pick up the idea rather quickly. Part of the charm of the series is its intuitive control, and it's no different with Extreme Skate Adventure. However, upon further inspection, it is quite obvious that the game has been dumbed down quite a bit for the core audience. Balancing on grinds and manuals is incredibly easy, and even launching into a manual requires simply the push of a button instead of the traditional up-down combination. Tricks are pulled off using only one context-sensitive trick button that automatically senses when you're on a ramp or approaching a rail.

This simplification of the control scheme drastically reduces the depth of the game, and Tony Hawk veterans will no doubt be turned off. However, there is a "Pros Control" option to revert to the more complex scheme that we're used to in Tony Hawk. Grabs, flips, and all the other tricks are reassigned to their appropriate buttons. Even so, the depth is lacking as the number of trick moves are cut in half since only 4 direction presses lead to unique tricks.

Extreme Skate Adventure focuses on three classic Disney movies: Toy Story 2, The Lion King, and Tarzan. There's also a "realistic" level called Ollieworld, which is where you skate around with either your custom skater or any of the human levels. Magic portals are also located in this level that transports you to any of the Disney worlds. 2 characters from each movie are available at the onset, and they're only able to ride around the tracks of their respective movies. The game follows the open-ended structure of Tony Hawk 4, where you're free to skate around the map forever if you so desire. Talking to NPCs opens up themed goals such as opening a toy chest to free a group of green army soldiers. Of course, there's always the classic S-K-A-T-E goals as well as score challenges. On the whole, none of the challenges are particularly difficult, and accomplishing each goal nets you an item that you can use in the create-a-skater mode to customize the character.

There's 2 player multiplayer built-in should you want to play with a friend. It's pretty bare-bones, with only three modes: Score challenge, H-O-R-S-E, and King of the Hill. Still, it's quite fun for awhile, and would be a great party game for kid gatherings.

Visually, the levels are quite distinctive and look as you would expect them to. Tarzan levels are full of lush foliage and animals while the Lion King levels are a fair, cartoony representation of the African savannah as seen in the movie. My favorite level is Andy's Room from Toy Story 2, where you grind among dominos and toy boxes and can wander into the bathroom and trick inside the sink and tub. The entire game looks appealing to the kid audience and has the animated touch of the Disney source material.

You would expect a Disney game to be full of related music tracks such as "Circle of Life" or "You've Got a Friend in Me", but strangely enough, groups like Smash Mouth and Reel Big Fish provide the audio. Perhaps it's fitting enough, considering that extreme sports tend to have licensed music. It wouldn't have been too hard to mix in Disney tunes into the selection though, would it?

The game is perfect for kids, which accomplishes the goal of Extreme Skate Adventure. Most everybody will prefer the Tony Hawk series for its depth (and why not?), but it's a nice diversion to see the Disney-themed courses and trick around in them. Watching Pumbaa & Timon skating around on a piece of bark is enough to bring a smile to anyone's face. Pick this up for your kids or for Disney fans who are new to extreme sports.