Continuing my campaign of covering obscure (and sort of pointless) handheld accessories, please bear witness to the Nintendo DS Motion Pak. Only compatible with one game, Tony Hawk Motion, this accessory allows players to use gyro controls to control Tony as he stumbles through skate parks and snowhills. The DS, DS Lite, and DSi consoles did not have built-in motion controls so this GBA cart needs to be installed into Slot-2 of DS Phat or DS Lite units in order to play this game. It wasn’t until the 3DS where gyro controls built directly into the hardware.
Yes, really, there is snowboarding in a Tony Hawk game. So much so that the game essentially starts the game on a snowboard as opposed to a skateboard. Unfortunately, the actual Tony Hawk trick/race/score options are not very fun and the motion control isn’t great.
Instead, playing the include Hue Pixel Painter mode is actually more fun than the actual game. Here, the player controls a paint monster, as if rolling a marble on screen, to paint certain areas of each stage. With some references to deBlob, the player must avoid or attack enemies while trying to paint goal areas. Honestly, this mode isn’t great either but it is more fun than playing any of the skateboarding or snowboarding options. Why this bonus game was included is a mystery itself.
Anyway, here is me testing this Motion Pak so you don’t have to.
