BMX XXX Review PS2
BMX XXX Review On PS2

BMX XXX is born from the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX games by Acclaim and Z-Axis, the Dave Mirra series never really took the bull by the horns to make a break through in terms of game play. More recently though Acclaim and Z-Axis did make an extreme sports game to rival the mighty Tony Hawk Pro Skater series which featured some great new and innovative game play that Activision later decided to borrow for their latest Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4. This game is Aggressive Inline, so you might expect Acclaim and Z-Axis to build on their latest and best work to date, but no unfortunately BMX XXX still has its feet firmly planted with in the roots of Dave Mirra BMX. As a result many of the gameplay problems found in the series have been carried over to BMX XXX with only the smattering of bad language and strippers to set it apart from the rest.

The gameplay of BMX XXX is extremely similar to that of Dave Mirra BMX 2, one button is used for tricks and another button is used for modifying those tricks. In total this does amount to a decent number of tricks although none of these tricks will feel particularly special. In fact many of the tricks will look very similar with only slight differences in leg and arm movements. Some of the bugs from Dave Mirra are here too, you can land any vert or mid air trick with a stall, so if you think you're going to crash and burn just hit the grind button and you will land perfectly on the bikes trick pegs and slide out of trouble down the rail. There are other ways to stop yourself from crashing while pulling of a gone wrong vert trick, so one you have found all the bugs in the game there isn't really anything that will demand much skill.

The structure of the game modes of the other hand have had a few pages taken out of the Aggressive Inline book. In the career mode you will notice that there is no timer so you can take your time talking to people and taking on individual timed goals as and when you like. Some of the challenges don't even require this, for example you may complete the high score challenges when ever you like and you don't even need to talk to someone to activate the challenge. You will also notice a health meter on the screen that will decrease every time you crash out.

BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
This is refilled every time you complete a challenge. You will generally forget about the health meter as it won't affect you until the very later stages of the game. Another new addition is the ability to pick up objects and people you may have to collect an object in order for someone to use it to your advantage. You will also have to pick up people and objects to a certain part of the level, people will ride on the back pegs of your BMX. This does not affect the handling of you bike but it can be quite amusing at times, especially when you have to carry five monkeys on your bike at the same time. Each level has twenty challenges and goals of which three are always score based much like Tony Hawk. There will always be at least one challenge that will have you riding people around plus a load of collection goals.

Most goals begin with a short cut scene, this is where you might find BMX XXX funny as you will here people talk about their hot salty nuts, big wieners and impotence problems. That is all these cut scenes do, the programmers actually forgot to include proper briefings for the challenges. You will also find some of the challenges are completely ridiculous, so much so that they simply don't make sense. You have to save the weather mans job, he has been promising snow to all the viewers, it is your job to make it snow by riding over steaming man hole covers! That's right, what the fuck is this game on about?
BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
BMX XXX Review On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com

Just in case you haven't heard BMX XXX is an 18 rated game for one reason, strippers. Yes there is some dodgy American teenager humour that you can't avoid, you probably should because it isn't funny. The real reason for the 18 rated certificate is the video clips of strippers, you are rewarded with these when you complete each level, there are three per level and one per competition which is only unlocked when you place first. This is a sweaty teenagers dream, the language, the strippers and the general dirtiness of the game means there will be hundreds of them tossing off around the county to a computer game!

BMX XXX doesn't look that good to be honest, but the levels are nice and large. The riders don't really look like they have had any life injected into them as they haven't been animated very well. When you pull off a trick on the ground the animation is at its worst, the bike and rider will jerk from one position to another. Unfortunately there is nothing outstanding in this department while some of the animation is definitely sub-standard.

As for the sound it's all pretty standard. The sound effects are familiar, but when you ride past pedestrians they will talk or make a comment most of them only have the one phrase though. When riding around the same spot for a while this can become extremely annoying. The sound track is all rock based featuring new and old bands such as the 80's band Motley Crue to Green Day.

Most games that are based on quirks and hilarity are not very good games. BMX XXX is not really any different but it is an improvement in some respects on Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2. Much of the game does feel half baked and almost unfinished and the risky move to feature strippers and cursing was never going to fill a the large gap in the gameplay. If you want to see strippers get a film out and if you want an extreme sports game get Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 or Aggressive Inline as they really do make BMX XXX look pathetic.

4 out of 10
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