Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

"It's like Tony Hawk 1, only crappier!"

Before I even start, I should mention that I absolutely love the Tony Hawk series... I've played the Dreamcast versions to death, and the main reason I bought this game was because I was starting to get tired of playing the same old levels over and over again in THPS 1 and 2. Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX is built using the same engine as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1, so I figured it would be similar enough that I would like it.

Obviously, the physics on BMX riding are somewhat different than that of skateboarding, so if you're coming from a THPS background, you kind of have to relearn some of this. If you come out of a trick riding backwards, you'll have to pull a 180 before you can really do anything else. This can be kind of annoying, since it eliminates all the momentum you had, so you basically have to try to come down from tricks facing forwards. You can do grinds and plants just like in Tony Hawk, but they work slightly differently. Maybe it's just me, but it seems more difficult to grind with the bike, and a LOT easier to do plants. You can even sort of combo plants ... like you can icepick, then jump and do another trick before landing on the same edge doing a toothpick. It's a nice addition to the engine that didn't really hit THPS until much later on. Another addition they gave to the engine was the manual (THPS 2 had them, but not the original). You can do them on flat land (down-up, or up-down, like THPS2), or you can land in them to keep your combo going, but manuals are actually quite hard to maintain in this game, so you can't do some of the more outlandish stuff that the later THPS's allow (this is a good thing in my opinion, but you might think differently). Pro BMX also has some minor ''hidden'' tricks that you can do... these are minor things like if you do a 360 Barspin, it gets called a Truckdriver... similarly, a 180 Backflip becomes a Flair You don't really get any huge point benefit from these (they're considered normal moves), but it's nice that the game actually recognizes them. Finally, Pro BMX offers more customization options when it comes to your bike... each skater has three different bikes (which increase their stats), and can choose different parts which will redistribute stats somewhat (different handlebars may increase your balance at the cost of jump height). Other than that stuff, Pro BMX is essentially Pro Skater with different levels, different tricks, and different riders... this isn't a bad thing of course, since Pro Skater is a very good game. Of course, Pro BMX has the same format as Pro Skater... what with the career mode, single run, free ride, and the same 2 player mode. If you were comfortable with the system in THPS1, you'll fit in here nicely.

Unfortunately, things get a little screwed up along the way. Maybe it's just me (and it could very well be), but it seems quite difficult to land tricks sometimes. If you try to land on a sloped surface, you have a VERY high chance of bailing. Coming down straight on a quarter pipe isn't that hard (although that too can be unforgiving at times. Plants are done decently well in the game, but coming out of them can be frustrating at times. When you do a plant on a quarter pipe, the only way to end it is to jump or bail... and when you jump, you have to land 90 degrees to the edge so that you can get back into the pipe. It sounds simple, but I've bailed a lot of times with this when it seemed to me that I was positioned properly. Speaking of bailing, it costs you quite a bit of time in this game! Unlike THPS2, you can't hurry up your rider, so you have to wait for him to get back on his bike (which can be frustrating in the dying seconds of a 2 minute run).

Another major problem in this game seems to be that it's somewhat buggy and unpredictable. Sometimes when you launch off a quarter pipe, you won't go quite the way you expect. Usually you'll come straight down, but many times I've come down at odd angles that forced me to bail because I couldn't align with the quarter pipe. I've also inexplicably launched out of the quarter pipe without holding up. Grinding leads to some other bugs. Occaisionally if you bail while grinding a rail, your rider will get up and be ''stuck'' in the rail... if you steer and jump a lot you can get yourself unstuck, but this really shouldn't happen. Getting your tricks to work isn't always easy either... perhaps I haven't mastered the timing properly, but I never had any problem with THPS, so I'm guessing it's the game that's being too picky. A final complaint is that it's sometimes too hard to turn around. You can easily get stuck near a wall and the game will think you're going backwards, and it can be a huge chore to convince your character to turn around, since the game (or sometimes you) seems to get confused about which way you're actually supposed to be going.

I find that the interface is somewhat irritating too. When you save your game, you have to give it a name... when you get farther and decide to save again, the game will sometimes remember the name, and sometimes not (if you load and then save, the game NEVER remembers the name). Sometimes the game will remember your initials on the high score list, and sometimes you'll have to re-enter them again. I'm not really sure why it forgets these things, and it seems mostly random as to when it does. Like THPS1, the game refuses to auto-load... so if you just want to go to Free Ride, you have to first load up your career, otherwise all the levels will be locked.

Graphics: 8/10 - The graphics are definitely very nice. The levels are well designed, the riders are modeled well, and the bikes as well. There's not a lot of motion in the levels though (there are vehicles moving around in some of the levels, but they only serve to knock you around... you can't do car plants). Could have been done better, but there's definitely nothing wrong with the graphics.

Sound: 9/10 - This is a tricky one... like THPS, all the songs are real punk songs by various bands. I love punk music, so I think this is great... but if you don't like punk, then you probably won't like the soundtrack. There are quite a few songs though (more than THPS1 or 2 I think), so maybe there'll be something you like. Sound effects are fairly generic and not really worth mentioning.

Control: 5/10 - Taken straight from Tony Hawk... but with the added difficulties I mentioned above. Controlling a bike may be harder than a skateboard, but it should have been easier than this. The goofy interface problems I mentioned also forced the points down here. It's too bad really, because if it wasn't for these problems, this game would be great.

Replayability: 8/10 - Games like these always had a lot of replayability in my mind... I often just go into Free Ride mode and bike around and try new tricks over and over again. The Career mode isn't as fun (I never thought it was in THPS either), but it's required to unlock all the junk in the game. Like THPS, all but one of the levels are locked from the start... all but one bike for each rider is locked, and there are two hidden characters, and two hidden level (I think... I haven't actually unlocked them yet, so I'm going on what I've read). The various 2 player modes should provide for some fun times too... although I'd recommend you stick with Tony Hawk.

Overall: 6/10 - It's unfortunate, but the control problems are really what doom this game in my opinion. If you can overcome these and learn to work around them, then it's a pretty fun game. If you haven't played any of the Tony Hawk games though, I'd really recommend you get those first, since they're definitely the better games.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/03