Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2

"Better then the origional but it is worth buying?"

This game is the sequel to Mat Hoffman Pro BMX; it first appeared on the PS1. It was one of the many Tony Hawk clones at that time but turned out to be quite fun. This sequel is out for the 3 current consoles: Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox. This review will cover the Gamecube version.

Gameplay 8/10- MHPB2 is a fun game but has some flaws with it as well. The control scheme is just like the original as well as the Tony Hawk games. It works very well for this game for the most part. But the game’s usually hard “Road Trip” mode takes away from a lot of the gameplay. Most of the challenges are very tedious and just plain not fun to play. There are 3 set levels of difficulty for every level. And the tedious difficult challenges make the progression through the game very hard and not enjoyable. Also I feel the Gamecube got screwed with some of the unlockables that are in this game too, I will tell you more about that in my graphics/sound section. This game is really fun when it comes to free riding. They added tons of flat landing moves which are very fun to mess around with because I hadn't seen anything like that before, except the very few free styling moves that Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 had. The added flat landing adds depth to the gameplay making lines more fun to attempt and added place to get more points. The level design is also very good in this game, the levels are nice sized and for the most part very enjoyable to ride. This game offer quite a few playing modes like Road Trip, free riding, 2 minute sessions, and the multiplayer options. The game also features in game park editor which is like the Tony hawk editor. One other complaint I had about this game was in the selection of the bikes; The riders all have 3 bikes, only one of them is exclusive to them, the other 2 are the same for everybody. I just wish they had everybody having bike totally exclusive to that character.

Graphics/Sound 8/10- As I said above the Gamecube version got screwed with the unlockable movies in this game. They are horribly compressed and just bad quality, and I have seen the Xbox and Ps2 versions and they are tons better quality. This is what made me give the graphics and sound an 8, for me this is my motivation to complete the career mode in extreme sports games, I love watching these movies. The graphics during gameplay are average, on par with THPS3, I’m not going to complain about them because they seemed fine to me. The soundtrack in this game wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t bad. This was a very average soundtrack.

Play Time/Replayability 8/10- The play time for this game will vary by your skill. But where this game really shines is in the replayability. I just love getting the best bike and free riding for hours. But that might get boring for some people. I am sure if you have played extreme sports games before you will know how you like to play the game.

Final Recommendation- This game only cost 20 dollars brand new I don’t think you should even bother renting it. Just go out and buy it; I think that it was well worth the 20 dollars that I paid for it.

Overall score- 810

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/03, Updated 07/10/03