Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2

"HUGE improvement from the original"

I was disappointed after buying Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (the original-realized on PSX), for it really was, as people who jeered it said, a Tony hawk Proskater on two wheels. So when Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 came out for Gamecube, I rented it first, so not to waste money. 15 minutes after turning it on I realized that I needed to go out and buy the game!

Graphics (8/10)
It's no Metroid Prime, but it does what it has to. It rarely ever shows signs of lag, or slow down. After long stretches of playing, you'll start to realize the finer details put in, like the rider animations and the lens glare and the backgrounds of the level-the water in Boston look spectacular-The graphics are plainly put, awesome.

Sound (7/10)
Not the proudest moment in the game, the music gets repetitive...fast! There are a handful of decent BMX'n adrenaline inducing hits, but then they are followed with a track list of dull rap and softer rock. However, the sound effects are more than decent but not great.

Controls: 10/10
This is where the game reaches a new level. You are able to perform jaw dropping tricks with minimum effort on your hands part. In short..you'll master the controls in a few short hours, that will fly by anyway. And when you are on level ground..don't just ride straight to a ramp -- like one of my friends always does. You are able to tick out your bike while on two wheels (one of the most fun things to do is rack up those combo's)

Gameplay (10/10)
The game is based upon a real road trip that Mat Hoffman and his BMX-ing buddies undertook. After completing tasks, videos can be unlocked, showing them in action. At each level, there will be 12 objectives. They are separated based upon difficulty: Amateur, Semipro, and Pro. You rack up the points to travel to the other eight destinations on offer. And as all great games are, it's open-ended.

The Multiplayer can leave you red-eyed from staring at the screen all night, but can easily get your weaker opponent frustrated, so watch out for a sucker punch while playing Multiplayer Graffiti mode. In the updated form, you do tricks in front of spray cans and the more you get, the more painted your opponents screen gets.
However, just like in every other game that offers the feature create-a-level mode sucks especially the HORRIBLE camera angles. Stay away from it!

Replay value (9/10)
Completing the game with every character and unlocking every secret will take a while, but with just one character would take only a few days. If you like to get 100% completion in the games you have it will take awhile, but otherwise the replay will largely come from multiplayer

Overall (9/10)
Some area's could have been improved specifically the create-a-level and music but the game is one you'd definitely need for your extreme sports collection...if you collect all the extreme sports videogames that come out...... anyway, whole review in one sentence-ER fragment (which you read before you clicked this): Huge improvement from the original..

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/03, Updated 01/14/03