16-Sep-2002 The extreme sports genre at bursting point The extreme sports genre at bursting point
BMXs are cool. No question about that. Anything that can stage a comeback from the style disaster that was the 1980s must be the height of grooviness.
Everyone knows what a BMX is, and Mat Hoffman is THE big name in the sport. But you have to feel sorry for him: no matter how hard he tries, becoming the best in his chosen sport, even if he's virtually unbeatable, he'll always be in the shadow of Tony Hawk.
TEACH ME NOW So let's put it to rest now: this game is very similar to Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. As a result, the things that work in this game are invariably those borrowed from the king of extreme sports games. The control scheme is almost identical, so Tony Hawk fans (and let's face it, there are a lot) will have no trouble pulling tricks from the off.
Maybe this is why the developers decided to forego a tutorial mode. Granted, there are so many players that know how to pull off tricks that they needn't bother. But to us, this is an omission that seems almost lazy. Even the third game in the Tony Hawk franchise had a tutorial, making it much easier to get the feel for the controls and learn the game's intricacies.
GRIND ME DOWN The levels are fairly well done, though. As in THPS3, the environments feature a large array of jumps, rails and bowls to help you build up your combos and rack up the points. Unfortunately, they don't have quite the same style as those in Tony Hawk's. In that game, you started off in a steelworks, with smouldering molten lava oozing all around and sparks flying in your face. In Pro BMX, what do you get? A generic bike park in Oklahoma. Doesn't quite compare, does it?
Of course, there is a huge amount of tricks, grinds and manuals for you to master, but it is often too difficult to pull off a really great sequence of tricks. There's neither the flexibility nor the fluidity to make this a truly rewarding game.
SMOOTH OPERATOR The graphics, while good, aren't as smooth or as well animated as in other extreme sports games. In Tony Hawk's 3, there was a faultless transition between stunts, and we loved the wince-worthy crashes that your character experienced. In contrast, the falls in Mat Hoffman seem quite tame.
CVG's marks are based on fun, and in that respect the game does well. But it's still not a patch on Tony Hawk's 3. Really there are only three types of people who should buy this game: those who've played THPS3 to death and want a new challenge; total BMX-obsessed nutters; and those with A LOT of spare money. Otherwise, stick to your skateboard.
Jimmy Francis
// Overview
Verdict
It will give you hours of BMX-ing fun and have you longing for the old days, but at the end of it all you'll still be pining for Tony.
To break the routine of performing tricks, the game sets you challenges on each level. Not that the idea was pioneered by the Tony Hawk's series, but give them marks for trying.
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