bike

While not nearly as well known as Tony Hawk, Mat Hoffman brings his own unique excitement to the world of extreme sports. The same holds true for the star's video games as well; far fewer people have played Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but that isn't to say the game isn't solid in its own right. In fact, it's pretty damn good. And like the THPS series, MHPBMX 2 offers an incremental upgrade in gameplay and the obligatory boost in visuals to make the series better than ever. Mat Hoffman, the game and the athlete, will never escape the shadow of Tony Hawk, but that doesn't mean he should be ignored. Read on and find out why.

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2's career mode is experienced via a Road Trip (no, not like the one with Tom Green). Imagine a charter bus where you go from city to city showing off your dance moves ... or in this case, your biking skills. There are ten riders in Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, six of which return from the original cast. New to the roster are Seth Kimbrough, Cory Kastazio, Nate Wessel, Ruben Alcantara, and Day Smith. Each rider is nicely detailed and comes with a fully customizable ride. You will travel across America, hitting Las Vegas, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, and more. Each city level not only has its own distinct look and feel, but also specific goals you have to complete. To give the Road Trip mode a little more flavor, players are treated to various behind-the-scenes videos from the Mat Hoffman Pro BMX 2 tour. You will see videos specific to the rider you selected.

Other playing modes include Session (which gives you three different time limits to do tricks) and Freeride. The latter is a great way for beginners to learn and master combos and manuals. More robust this time around is the multiplayer mode, which has over six different multiplayer games including the requisite Horse and Split-Screen, and cool additions like Half-Pipe Hell and Tag.

New to the series is the inclusion of flatland tricks, which are executed from manual positions. These closely resemble tricks like handstands in Tony Hawk. Flatland tricks are not only cool to look at, but also earn you a lot of trick points. The key to a successful flatland trick is balance. I was only able to perform a handful of flatland tricks including a backwards steamroller, boomerang, dump truck, and a front pogo.

For the most part, gameplay is pretty straightforward. Most of your time will be spent playing the Road Trip mode. Each of the eight cities has three tiers of objectives starting at Amateur moving to Semi-Pro then Professional. Each tier has four objectives making for 12 per city. As you complete goals, you earn road trip points. These points can be used to unlock more levels or cities. In addition, players can unlock new songs, clothes and bikes for their riders as well.

On paper, this is a tried and true formula that has been used by many games since the first Tony Hawk. Unfortunately this is where Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 loses some of its luster. I have no problems with the objective-based parts of the game. What I do have a problem with is the monotonous nature of them. There's too much of an emphasis on fetching items rather than performing tricks and getting rewarded for doing them well. The trick based objectives are fine in the game (some of them are a little too challenging) but for the most part, they work. What bores you to tears is the trivial riding around, scavenging for hidden objects, activating switches, and knocking over things.

On a more positive note, the level design is topnotch. Developer Rainbow Studios has managed to create challenging levels that look great. What's distinguishing about all the levels is how the various stunt areas flow together seamlessly. When a game lets you create lines of combinations this easily, it's extraordinary.

From a visual standpoint, the game looks a lot better on Xbox than on PS2. Granted the PS2 does look very good, the textures and shading on the Xbox just look better. Even the animations are smoother. The coolest aspect is without a doubt the crash animations. Remember how outrageous the crash animations were in ATV Offroad Fury or Motocross Madness? It's great to see Rainbow brought its expertise in that area to Mat Hoffman. Trust me, you'll wince and cringe after some of the wipeouts.

Can you can can? Surprisingly, the weakest aspect of Mat Hoffman Pro BMX 2 is the soundtrack. Where the original Mat Hoffman had cool bands like Outkast, Jurassic 5, and Bad Brains, Pro BMX 2's line up is rather dull. The good thing for Xbox owners is the ability to listen to music that you've put on your hard drive.

Even with its shortcomings, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 is worth checking out. Granted the Road Trip mode can get kinda frustrating and boring, but experiencing the various levels and checking out the behind-the-scenes video footage is almost worth the aggravation. The new flatland tricks are a definite plus and the ability to use your own music rocks.

The Lowdown: Activision's secondary poster boy delivers with improved visuals and a plethora of new tricks. BMX fans once again have something to be excited about.

Pros: Great visuals; smooth animations; tight control; flatland tricks and user controlled music.

Cons: [bad] soundtrack; tedious challenges.

BIG DAN's OVERALL RATING: 7.4/10
Good game, but it's just not as appealing as skateboarding.

This game is very very nice indeed. Couple of problems though would be that the tricks u do up in the air are worthless unless you either combo them on a manual or do a special. Thats kind of a bummer considiring I play tony hawk a bunch and i figured it would be a lot like that. It is also a very difficult game to start out with but once you have played it for a little bit it is a very fun game. This game is very nice and the only thing that needs to be improved is the soundtrack! Yuck.

Okay, played it quite a bit more over the weekend, and it's still fun but the Xbox "Controller S" D-Pad is USELESS. I pretty much wish I had bought the PS2 version at this point due to the controller, inferior graphics or not. The D-Pad feels "dead" for lack of a better term, and in cases where you have to perform, say, a front flip which requires pressing something as simple as "down, down, X", it takes (no kidding) about 10-15 attempts before you get the 2 taps to register. It either only registers 1 tap or it does down/left or down/right instead. I've played all of the Hawk series and alot of the ... and never had trouble with much more complicated tap sequences so I don't think it's a user issue. The game itself is still alot of fun though, primarily when you just ride around in "free-ride" mode. Chicago has been my favorite level so far and the level editor is still super cool. The level goals can get a little repetitive/tedious but it's not unforgivible. I still recommend Hoffman 2 if you're a BMX fan but if you have the option get it on PS2.