Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

"It's more annoying than fun to play"

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX was a 2001 game developed by Runecraft and published by Activision in an attempt to regain the popularity of another Activision published game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The game features a similar structure to THPS and even uses a modified version of the THPS engine. However, the game didn't quite work as well as planned and never caught on, only getting one sequel several years later which didn't sell well either.

Game Play - 5/10

If you've ever played the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater you'll know exactly how the structure works, only this time with a BMX bike instead of a skateboard. For those unfamiliar, the game consists of levels (environments) and within each level, you have to complete goals to unlock new levels. Each level has five goals to complete, and you play the levels in two-minute runs, trying to complete goals within that time. The goals include "High Score" (acquiring a set amount of points within the two minutes), "Pro Score" (same concept, but somewhere around double the points of High Score), "Collect T-R-I-C-K" (each level has a floating T, R, I, C, and K scattered), "Secret Cover" (a cleverly hidden cover in which you have to pick up to unlock this) and finally a goal specific to every level (as in, every level has a unique goal for the last one). The concept is pretty simple, however the game is a bit hard to progress in. For example, in THPS which used the same 5 goal concept, the required number of goals was significantly lower, requiring two to unlock level 2, five (total) to unlock level 3, etc. In Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX you have to get FOUR for level 2, a total of eight for level 3, and a whopping 13 for level 4! This makes the game extremely hard to progress as you're required to do nearly every single goal in the game. The score goals are harder to obtain than those in THPS too, because you can't really pull off "combos" (or multiple tricks in a chain without stopping) as well as you can on a skateboard.

Furthermore, it doesn't help that the stat point system doesn't progress much. Wait, the what? Well, in THPS the game periodically updated your stats based on goal completion, so that way throughout the game your skater progressed and got better, able to go faster, jump higher, etc. In Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, the stat system works completely differently. Rather than your character having stats, it is your bike that is assigned stats. Furthermore, these stats don't improve by doing goals; rather, you have to compromise by customizing it. For example, you can change tires and handlebars, but this actually REMOVES stats from a category and simply moves them to the other. As you can see, this is far from "progressing". Eventually you unlock a slightly better bike, but it really lacks compared to how this could have been handled.

So, it may be hard to progress but you have fun doing it, right? Well, not exactly. See, the conversion from a skateboarding engine to a BMX engine wasn't so smooth, and the game is plagued with a few glitches. From time to time as you're riding around, you may get stuck onto rails, stuck against walls, randomly stopped, etc. It's also a bit hard to turn the BMX around as you can't ride it the other way like a skateboard. Therefore sometimes you'll randomly crash if you try to turn around. Landing tricks only works half of the time; your front tire can be perfectly (and I mean perfectly) aligned with the quarterpipe after doing a vertical trick, yet there is a 50/50 chance that you'll bail. The game also tends to make you stuck under rails if you bail near them, wasting a good 15 seconds of your two minute run until the game realizes it needs to fix itself and reset you upright. Another glitch that occurs, if you consider it a glitch, is the saving system. Like any good game, you can save your progress to continue it at a later time. Well, in Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, if you save your game, turn off the console, turn it on at a later point, load your save, and try to save again, what does it do? Does it overwrite? Of course not, silly! It makes a new save! Wait, what? That's right. Every time you save after you turn the game on, even after LOADING your save, it makes a new save on your VMU, wasting yet another 10 blocks of precious space. It may be because I let the game name my save (which defaults to "CAREER A") but even still, why it won't overwrite and/or ask me to choose a file is ridiculous.

Speaking of VMU, the game does make a little use out of it. While you're playing, it will display messages on the VMU screen such as "U Rule" or "Yeah" for successful trick landings, or something like "Loser" or "Lame" if you bail. This concept was directly taken from THPS. While it may be a little neat feature, you'll rarely (if ever) look at that because you'll be wanting to pay attention to the game.

Graphics - 7/10

Not much I can really say here. The graphics are pretty good, and probably the best thing this game actually has to offer (sadly). The environments can be pretty simplistic, consisting of mostly rails and quarter/halfpipes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you're say, approaching a quarterpipe, you will notice black lines and slight shaking as if it wasn't really put together properly. You will notice a bit of discoloration if you pay attention to the brown color of the quarter/halfpipes and other environmental items. On the other hand, your bike is solidly displayed and the characters are comparable to characters in other Dreamcast games, graphically. I do think with proper development, they could have taken the time to use the Dreamcast's full power, but the fact is that this is likely just a port of a PlayStation master version so the graphics are to be expected.

Sound - 3/10

Now, the sound in Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX really irks me. The first thing you'll notice is that, on the menu, you'll hear a song that sounds like a funk song from the 70s or something. It's pretty cool but it doesn't really fit in with the game. What really bothers me though, is the sound effects played during the pause menu. When you scroll up or down, it has a key tone noise that plays. That's not so bad, most games do that. But the sound they chose makes my ears want to bleed. Once you start actually playing the game, the sounds they chose for your interaction with the environment (grinding, riding, etc.) sounds fine, nothing to really complain about. However, music... It seems like every other run it plays "Fools Gold" by Stone Roses. I don't know if the game only has two songs, or if it's just a really bad shuffling design. Also, the sound is turned down really quiet by default (perhaps for good reason). I think the sound in this game could have been done much better.

Final Thoughts

For an extreme sports game, even though it was one of the originals of its kind, it could have been done much better. The gameplay is considerably harder than its skateboarding counterpart, and with buggy gameplay, a lackluster sound support and graphics that weren't inventive by any means, it just didn't equal a great product. One last thing I think I should mention, is that this game came out after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Normally this wouldn't matter, but THPS2 greatly redid the engine, doubling the number of goals per level, and introducing a cash concept of progressing and leveling up. I think Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX would have been significantly better if it was based off of the THPS2 engine. You could have then had the ability to buy stat points (like THPS2) or perhaps upgraded bikes, allowing for a true upgrade system. Oh well.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/09

Game Release: Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (US, 09/11/01)