MAT HOFFMAN'S PRO BMX (GBA)


Tail-whipping its way to the GBA

By MARTIN KINGSLEY

Ever since the arrival of the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the Playstation has enjoyed supremacy in the "extreme sports" genre, with several masterpieces including the aforementioned Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX and Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX.

However, in these past few months almost all of these gems have made the transition to several other platforms, namely the Dreamcast and GameBoy platforms.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached this latest offering, expecting to be under-whelmed at the most. Luckily my fears were unfounded.

The concept is simple to grasp. Choose a character out of a pool of famous BMX bikers, choose a course, of which there are many, ranging from dirt stunt tracks to construction yards and grind, flip, grab, jump and twist your way to the top. There is no lack of tricks to execute, as there are over 60, not including the signature moves.

The actual gameplay is simple yet fun, but its all over far too quickly and when you've finished the game once, there isn't much of an incentive to come back for more.

The controls are easy to master, with one flip button and one grab button. When one of these is pressed together with a direction, a trick is produced. Simplicity itself!

The graphics are solid, with crisp backgrounds and good animation, however the actual characters looks slightly blurred and jagged. I'm not certain whether this is a part of the game or just a fault in my GBA?

The sound samples are good, and the music is decent, although it does get slightly annoying after a while and is nothing to write home about in itself.

Alas, for this seems to be the case with the majority of GBA games. I am hopeful that we will see some improvement in this area within the next few months.

At the end of the day, this is an entertaining game, with few faults, but is unfortunately short-lived. Buy it if you like this kind of game - you won't be disappointed, though the old 'try before you buy' motto could be worth adhering to.

ORIGINALITY 75%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 80%
PLAYABILITY 75%
ADDICTION 65%
ENJOYMENT 75%