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Dave Mirra BMX ChallengeReviewed by
Nick Tran
Dave Mirra BMX Challenge is an extreme sports bike game close to the feel of Tony Hawk but with BMX biking. This game features a couple of single-player modes, including exhibition, quick play, and a career mode that is laughably short. Career mode is split between two series: race events and trick events. The race events are incredibly simple, and the highest (pro) difficulty level is not much different. Only the least dexterous players will show any hope of losing to the AI. With some forced dedication, you can finish both difficulty levels in about two hours then be bored in the trick portion of career mode. To be fair, there is more challenge to be found in the career mode's trick events, only because the tricks themselves vary and the point totals needed to pass the later levels are demanding. Using various combinations of the directional pad and the PSP's circle and/or square buttons, you can pull off different tricks. If you are close to a rail, you can press the square button to jump and the triangle button to grind on the rail. None of these events are helped by BMX Challenge's horrible physics engine. Collision detection is inconsistent, as you can ride through some objects (such as bushes and trees), but ramming into other objects (such as café tables) topples you off your bike. While the basic movements of the bikes and riders are decent, it is mind-boggling how one can speed around a 90-degree corner, do sharp hairpin turns at full speed, or suddenly teleport onto a rail even though you were nowhere near it in the first place.
Screenshots (Courtesy Crave Entertainment) :
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Extreme sports fans can point to the game's wireless play and low price as possible reasons to buy this game, but in the end, even those reasons aren't enough to pick up this thoroughly lifeless, monotonous, and all-too-short game. The biggest challenge in Dave Mirra BMX Challenge, it seems, is actually enjoying it. Unfortunately, Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for the PSP is another in a line of more recent Mirra-themed games that simply aren't worth your time or money.
