Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX

Lip grind? Nosepick? No, these are not tools found in the office of a cosmetic surgeon, but rather complex stunts you will have to pull off on a child’s bike in order to score big points.

Dave Mirra freestyle BMX, from Z Axis and Acclaim Max Sports, comes very close to doing for the PC world of trick bike riding what Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (from Activision) did for the world of skateboarding. How close?

The controls are almost identical, the format of the game is close to being the same, and graphically THPS2 is a little superior and has force feedback capabilities, which freestyle BMX is lacking.

Let’s get to specifics of the freestyle BMX program:

There are 10 professional riders, some of the best in the business, each ranked according to abilities. You can access any one of the riders to begin the game, but you can only access one of the 12 courses, one of the four available bikes, and one of the five clothing styles. The styles are basically the jerseys you can win. As you complete amateur requirements on the courses, you can pick up sponsorship, and that means ‘dressing for success.’

You will begin in Greenville, N.C., in a backyard course. Four challenges are set in front of you, which must be accomplished – though not in a single run – in order to advance. The nice thing about the earlier challenges is that they teach you the controls of the game, rather than require you to pull of incredible feats of derry-do at the start of the program. There is a log in the yard – jump it. Do a jump over the first dirt hill, tag all four electrical boxes in the yard and score 5,000 points to advance to the next level. That’s when you have to start jumping for distance and performing a few grinds – one on a wire strung incredibly high off the ground.

Controls are not that hard to use; in fact, this program uses the same basic game pad hot key elements at THPS2, so if you like wheel games, and have the Tony Hawk program, you will make the transition to Dave Mirra’s product effortlessly. For those embarking on this style of program for the first time, you will pick up the control configuration quickly, enabling you to link tricks for the really big scores. This is not the type of game that requires constant directional control, but rather a light tap on the controller will steer the bike quite well.

Graphically this is a fine program. Camera angles provide several perspectives of the rider, and there are some clipping problems – which were first noticed at the train ramp when the rider’s head and shoulders disappeared into the passing cars while the bike was stalled on the ramp. Crash sequences are well done, but there is no blood or threatened loss of life when a rider grabs big air and lands wrong.

The sound effects of the rider’s tricks are somewhat buried by a pulse-pounding musical barrage which includes songs by Cypress Hill, Sublime, Rancid, Social Distortion, Deftones, and Dropkick Murphys, and others.

Dave Mirra freestyle BMX is a high-flying game that showcases some of the best stunts performed by the cream of the BMX freewheeling crop. It is rated for Everyone, and it is a single-person ride that features career (ProQuest), session and free ride modes. It is a progressive game, welcoming each player as a beginner and allowing them to advance at a measure pace as they learn the skills to score well. This is a blast to play, has numerous challenges and has enough eye candy to sweeten the appetite of any competitive sports gamer.

Install: Easy
It only asks for 248 megs of hard drive space, and goes onto the PC quickly.

Gameplay: 8
Some clipping programs, and stuttering can hold up a run, but it also freezes the timer during a run so you don’t lose valuable seconds. For the most part, this program plays very well from the beginning of a run to its conclusion.

Graphics: 8.5
Solid, lush, bright graphics with nice variety and blocked out target areas help player negotiate courses that are both intriguing and well designed. The polygonal riders look very good, and move quite realistically.

Sound: 8.5
The score is very good, and the sounds of a biker doing a grind are well rendered.

Difficulty: 8.5
This is a progressive game, allowing gamers to advance abilities a little at a time. You only have to complete the course requirements in increments, not all at once, which allows the joy factor to increase a bit, while the difficulty factor drops a touch.

Concept: 8.5
The combination of top riders, excellent environments, cool stunts and game play that allows players to advance at a measured speed equals a well-designed product.

Multiplayer: N/A
This is a single-person game.

Overall: 8.5
This is the type of game that anyone in a family can enjoy, from the young to the young at heart. It is a reflexive challenge, but it renders the skills faithfully and the action is first-rate.