Video Games

Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Crave Entertainment, Wii
ESRB E September 25, 2007

For years Teens have been living their extreme sports dreams through gaming consoles thanks to the Tony Hawk pro skater and other spin off games. BMX challenge is one of those spin off games where players ride bicycles and do tricks to boost their speed in races. Like the Tony Hawk game for the Wii the wii mote is held sideways pressing buttons to trigger tricks. Unlike Tony Hawk, you have to hold 2 to petal, meaning that you only have one button to press to activate tricks.

If the developers of BMX Challenge licensed the engine for Tony Hawk’s Downhill, they’ve made many improvements. For instance players move the wii mote to steer the bike, instead of using the d-pad. However the levels are poorly created. Instead of performing laps around the same area, or progressing through a visually rich neighborhood/city, player ride through a short piece of identical scenery that displays as if you are looping, but the game no indication that its a lap. Some levels have a unique area players come out to at the end, but again this same scenery is repeated a few times as players advance towards the end. This had a very disorienting effect, and takes away from game play.

Like Tony Hawk Downhill Jam this too has a multiplayer option where players can participate in many different types of events that range from tricks to racing. Overall this game was easy to get into, but not enjoyable to play since the tricks weren’t varied enough and the levels were boring to advance through. Beyond this the game also lacked level creation which was a favored piece of many Tony Hawk games. So I don’t recommend libraries purchase this game.
Overall: 4 of 10
Playability: 3 of 5
Social: 4 of 5
Originality: 1 of 5

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 1:59 am and is filed under Game, Wii, Multiplayer, ESRB E, 4 of 10, Originality - 1 0f 5, Social - 4 of 5, Playability 3 of 5, Crave Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.