"A (very) basic, 'no-frills' racing game."

Pros: If you want a basic, 'no-frills' racing game, JMSW fits the bill.
Cons: There are lots of tracks, but the graphics and gameplay are mundane at best.

Conclusion: A $5 rental, okay; a $50 purchase - no way!

Concept: 5/10
I enjoy motorcycle riding, and I know a lot of folks like to take a dirtbike for the occasional ride. Imagine a game that allows you to pick out a hot motorcylcle, customize, and take it for a burn in the woods. Sounds great, right? Yeah - but too bad this game isn't it. Jeremy McGrath is a big name in supercross racing, but except for his name and face, nothing about this game seems 'super'. The selection of motorcycles have slight differences in traction, powerband, and suspension, but choosing different bikes doesn't seem to make all that much of a switch in your performance. Heck, the bikes, whether they're 125s or 400s, look identical except for the color paneling. Boring!

Graphics: 5/10
When a game has average gameplay, good graphics can help to elevate it and make playing it a more enjoyable experience. Unfortunately JMSW's graphics don't seem to be much of an improvement over the older version of Jeremy
McGrath for Nintendo 64 or original Playstation. The lanscapes tend to be barren, with identical cardboard-cutout trees and the occasional building or sagebrush to break the monotony. I have to admit that the framerate is fast and smooth - but then it should be with such relatively unsophisticated graphics. Even on a PSOne or N64 these graphics would seem merely decent - but on a new-generation machine like the GameCube the grpahics are truly lacklustre. I think a 5/10 is generous on my part.

Sound: 5/10
The music tracks included are actually a decent selection - and some are even from bands I've heard of! The sound effects are merely adequate. One annoyance I found was that adjusting the volumes for the music or sound effects seemed to have no influence on the loudness of the motorcycle engines.

Gameplay: 5/10
Control seems to be okay for racing from point A to B: mash the A button and use the left stick (or D-pad) to steer. The problem seems to be with doing stunts: you have to take your thumb off the gas to hit X or Y while hitting the D-pad to input a trick. I found that strictly as a racer the controls were not too bad, but for pulling off stunts the control inputs were awkward. The controls are adjustable, so perhaps this is a minor complaint. For straight-forward racing action, JMSW isn't too bad. More minor quibbles: there are none of the neat little extras that folks like to see these days in their extreme racing games: no replay video, no track editor, no character editor, etc. The menuing system worked well enough, and there are plenty of racing styles and tracks to choose from. I found it frustrating that the game doesn't save your preferred racing skill level, but always defaults to 'pro'. And yet another complaint: the default view always has a map, stopwatch, and speedometer on-screen: you can pause the race and turn these off, but the next time you race the view is set back to the default of all gauges on.

Conclusion: 5/10
Overall, Jeremy McGrath Supercross is the very definition of average. It sets out from the beginning to ''cover all the bases'' - and that's all it does. If all you want is a mediocre, bare-bones motorcycle racing, then go ahead and buy it - but $50 seems like a lot of money for mediocrity. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate JMSW a 5.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/02, Updated 03/05/02