Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2

"A bmx biking game, spawned off the craze of Tony Hawk"

Pro-Quest Mode (career)
This is the main part of the game. You go through Career mode to gain *respect* by doing certain objectives. As you gain respect, you get new sponsors, new tricks, new levels, and eventually new bikes. There are 10 objectives for each level (8 levels) but a lot of them take a while to get. They consist of stuff like pulling a 10,000 point trick, doing a certain gap, knocking over stuff, opening doors, pulling big combos, etc. but they vary enough to not get repetive. and after completing the objectives you have to a contest and compete against other bikers, as well as find all the gaps. Also, spread around each level are 4 fellow bikers waiting for you to talk to them (they usally tell you objectives) and every once in a while they will spring alive and bust out some tricks for your enjoyment! overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the deep career mode.

Levels
the levels are pretty dang big this time around, remember all the woodward levels from the first one? (there was like 5) well, they put them all in one, and even added and improved onto them (this is the only level somewhat reminicent to the first game, but its much improved). All the levels have some kind of moving vehicle in it. Like woodward has trucks going on the roads, trainyard has trains, the highway has fast moving cars, etc. There are ''fantasy'' levels like the Water Park that lets you shred in an abondened Water Park, and there are real life levels, like the city one, where there are buildings, cars, picnic tables, skateparks, construction sites etc. which is cool.

Multiplayer
Well..... It's only 2 players.. and its not even simoultaneous play. You have to take turns, but I think there is good reason, I don't know if it can handle the big levels and all the interactive/moving objects in split screen. But the 2player is still pretty fun, with stuff like longest grind, worst crash, b-m-x (horse), and highest mark (who can do the highest footplant), and etc. 2player is still relatively fun, but too bad we couldn't have simoultaneous.

Sound/Music
Pretty good soundtrack with sublime, sum 41, godsmack, rage against the machine, and methods of mayhem, but there are some annoying songs. like the rap songs, even though rap is my fave genre, i find the rap songs in this game kind of annoying.

The Ugly
I had two problems with this, for one, there is some nasty slowdown every once in a while, like when there is a lot of traffic and another biker comes on screen or if you're breaking an interactive object, but I didn't find it taking away from the gameplay a whole lot, but some people may be picky about it. Also, the collision detection gets messed up sometimes, allowing you to get stuck inside an object (but usually not a big problem) and also, the control of the bike might get you annoyed (moving backwards when you don't wanna) but I wasn't too peeved.
and also, it advertised along time ago that you could make your own player, but this feature was taken out.

Trick System/Control
The trick system is where this game shines its brightest. You can do almost any trick, any way you want to. You can ''modify'' any trick!!!!
wallrides, footplants, grinds, manuals, nose manuals, regular tricks, etc.
using circle you can add a no hander or a nofooter or a barspin to almost any trick!!! this adds up to a LOT of possible trick combinations, you have to see it to believe it (even if you played the first mirras)

Create a Park
This is the best create a park I have seen, its better than THPS2. There are all kinds of objects like dumpsters, to billboards, to helicopters. there is also a rail tool that lets you put rails on other objects! there are a few different themes (6?, 8?) that are all unique and cool.

Overall
I love this game, (but I also ride a little BMX) and if you liked Mat Hoffman, or Tony Hawk 1 or 2 you should love this (yes I realise that this is not a skateboarding game and THPS is) and it can't hurt to try it out. But I have seen a few people who despised this game. But make sure you give it a chance, and make sure you can manual, I've seen a bunch of people who play this without ever manualing, which imo is the most important trick of the game lol.

My Score: 9.0

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/01, Updated 09/02/01