Freestyle control
Written: Jul 10 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: quality graphics, great responsive controls and balance, variety of tracks, challenging computer
Cons: Lack of options, cant upgrade bikes, Must follow course, computer seems superior at times
The Bottom Line: MX 2002 contains many elements of motorcross racing and freestyle in a game that you won't find anywhere else
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| scigamer's Full Review: Championship Motocross 2002 for PlayStation 2 |
Entering the world of motorcross, one can’t help remembering back to the entertaining hours of excitebike from the first Nintendo system had to offer. There have been several different motorcross titles since then which really haven’t interested me until I got my hands on and played MX 2002. MX 2002 provides a great arcade action feel with easy to learn system with quality responsive control along with a wide variety of courses ranging in different diffculties with a challenging and tough computer opponets that keep you battling for position spots.
GAMEPLAY
MX 2002 system has a few basic modes to choose from when playing. Exhibition lets you race and access most of the courses available but to unlock more you need to race through career mode first. Freestyle lets you perform all the 20 different aerial tricks on large tracks to earn points in a certain time limit. Career mode lets you create and customize your own rider and go through a standard event calendar and race on a different track each time.
You can customize your helmet,goggles,clothing and boots from the various sponsored motorcross clothing. There are several professional motorcross riders to chose from each having the same abilities as the other.
As you complete each track by placing at least third in career mode you unlock certain challenges varying from long jump to accomplishing some type of goal in a race. There is also a multiplier mode the set up in a split screen were you can race another player head to head or challenge them to see who can earn more points landing insane aerial tricks in a freestyle format. These type of racing format games can have several aspects that work for them but if the courses in these games aren’t varied and challenging then the game would lose the gamers interested as a whole.
MX 2002 doesn’t come close to having this problem because there are at least 20 different tracks that are contained in the game each with there unique designs and difficulties. Practically all of these courses are created based on real like courses that exist which is an added bonus.
CONTROLS
The overall control system is truly the highlight of this game that takes it from being an average common racing game to something unique and it bring more realism to the game to entertain die-hard fans and beginners alike. The first thing I was aware of is the remarkable sense of balance and how responsive the controls were when racing. There are a few different elements in the controls that are essential skills that will make the difference in finishing near last place or finishing near the top. The three keys are the pre-load, clutch and power slide functions that gives you an extra speed and higher jumps as well as quick sharp turns. The clutch is definitely important in the start of a race were it gives you a quick second burst of speed to get ahead of the pack.
The preload serves two different functions, one to load the suspension to built momentum while launching off a ramp or hill to give a smooth landing and a burst of speed and the other for the aerial tricks that you can perform. It’s not good enough just to know this concept of preload because it’s more of a timing issue, where you have to learn the tracks jumps and turns to adjust it. The overall goal is to time it so you land your jump on the downward part to gain speed, if you don’t your going to fall backwards losing time in a race. Power slide is required to quickly turn your bike out of a turn to keep monmetum. Once you have experience with the pre-load, doing tricks will be a snap because most only use the preload L1 and 2 buttons along with just pressing one of the face buttons to do a trick in the air. The great thing is that there is no limit to what racing mode you can do tricks in because you have the ability in any of them
GRAPHICS
Another highlight that MX 2002 has that uses more of what the PS2 has to offer is how visually all the riders and environments stand out through out the game. The textures really shine from the environments to the dirt tracks but more in particular and more in detail in the riders and there bikes. The animation for the riders is well done as well as the dust that is produced and kicked up in the aftermath of the bikes.
One great feature is that there is really not loss in quality in having multiple racers on the screen at one time. This is really shown in the multiplier mode because there is really no distortion with the split screen setup and it just looks the same as a full screen mode. The menu displays have a stylized graphically flair to them especially when the game is loading.
SOUND
The effects as well as the soundtrack really work well for this game because they bring out the realism of each race. The bike engine sounds are really constant with the action such as the engine whining in turns and jumping hills and ramps and well with all the sound involved in landing in the dirt. The rock soundtrack works well with this type of racing game because it gets you it the mood and get you pumped up to race. The downside is there is not much variety in the songs so your going to hear the same songs in the game.
PROBLEMS
The overall issue I have with the game concerns more in the lack of options in upgrading the abilities of the bikes. I would have liked after each race to enhance my bike and make it faster and perform better instead of having all the bikes the same. Another issue is the fact that once I play and beat a track in the calendar event, I can’t go back and replay it. It’s also interesting to notice that if you wonder outside of the established track you just automatically crash like some invisible rider just came by and attacked you out of no where.You then just start back when you were as if nothing happened, though it would have been great if you can take shortcuts and cheat a little. There’s a few other minor problems but you really don’t notice them very often to become annoying.
CONCLUSION
MX 2002 contains many elements of motorcross racing and freestyle and blends them very well together to have a very entertaining and challenging experience. It contains many qualities and merits that will keep die-hard motorcross fans interested as well as beginners to this type of racing experience. While this game is far from perfect and the options could have been expanded, this definitely is as close to the real thing as your going to get and it provides several features it won’t find anywhere else.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
scigamer
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Location: Columbus,Ohio
Reviews written: 118
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I swear I would probably pass out if I wasn't plugged into something....
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