Disney Sports Motocross – GBA – Review

Play begins with choices on whether to play a single-player game
or to hook up with some buddies and play a multi-player game, which only
requires game link cables, not more copies of the game. The single player
options include a Championship Cup, which is a tournament-style mode, plus Time
Attack, Score Attack, Exhibition, Mini-Games and Tutorial modes. There are six
courses to race in the Championship Cup, each with varying laps and heats. Speed
is the most important component of racing, with tricks coming second. A turbo
booster supplies bursts of speed, but has to be frequently replenished by racing
over oil icons (time will also increase turbo levels). The race is against three
other racers. At the end, points are awarded for race placement and tricks.

The view is a side-scrolling view which works reasonably well,
but oftentimes doesn’t show what’s coming up when the character is close to the
right edge of the screen, for instance, holes in the pavement and jump ramps.
The basic forward bike movement is handled by the "A" button, with turbo
assigned to the "B" button. The "R" button is for tricks and the control pad
angles the front bike tires up or down for jumps. Racers can also use their back
tires to take out opponents.

Each character has their own special tricks to perform, which
can be earned by riding over different colored jewels on the tracks. These are
for points, as they don’t give the racer any advantage over opponents while
racing. Special fun items can be earned while racing, too, which can be chosen
before each race once they’re in the item inventory. However, only one item can
be used at a time. These items range from bike improvements that will increase
speed or enhance the bike in some way, and also cool duds for Mickey and friends
to wear.

Exhibition mode offers players their choice of the six tracks,
without having to play tournaments. The three mini-games are simple and really
aren’t even worth mentioning. The Tutorial mode is done very nicely and offers a
good introduction to the different tricks, tracks and controls in the game in a
graduated-level type of scenarios.

Multiplayer mode allows up to four people to play with a
Gamelink cable, with only one cartridge, always a plus! Players can also
exchange items via the cable.

Racing with the Disney characters is amusing at first, and the
characters and backgrounds are detailed, with vibrant colors. However, there’s
almost too much detail with some of the tracks – it’s distracting from the track
itself. The six tracks offer some variety, but with the limited number of
tracks, they’ll soon be memorized. Keeping ahead of the other racers isn’t very
difficult after playing the course through a few times, it mainly requires using
the turbo as much as possible and not worrying about the tricks too much. The
strongest element is the multi-player mode, which lets friends race each other
any time without having to own multiple cartridges.