Motocross Mania

for PC CD-Rom

Distributed by
Take 2 Games

Price: £29.99

Players : 1 (plus online)

System Requirements : (recommended)

• Windows 95/98
• Pentium II 266 MHz (400 MHz)
• 64Mb RAM (128Mb RAM)
• 500Mb hard disk space
• 3D graphics card
• DirectX 7.0a (included on CD)

Junior Kickstart was never as difficult as this. Get your motor runnin', but you won't be out on the highway but a dirt-track in a number of different game styles such as Motocross (outdoor tracks with terrains of varying deterioration), Supercross (the same thing but indoor), Freestyle (go for a rekkie) and Baja/Enduro (zoom about, try some stunts and collect points). Riding bikes of 125cc, 250cc and 400cc you can go for a Quick Race, which gives you a one-off stab at any of the different games, Championship, in which you'll need to prove your mettle to progress to the higher levels and Practice. There's a Time Attack round for those who want to beat the clock, a Garage for the engine-tweakers amongst you and if you want to rack up your phone bill you can go online and test gamers worldwide. In all races you must never go off the beaten track for more than three seconds at a time otherwise you'll be put back on and shall end up falling behind even further.

Motocross Mania is a bit of a laugh with some real-world physics as you throw yourself about, but the main problem with many games like this is that it's all too easy to lose your opponents as they zoom off ahead. It's also a piece of cake to keep falling off your bike, while the nearly-came-a-cropper times find you in a position of almost falling off and then you'll see anything BUT the correct physics and there's no way you'd right yourself after that move. It's quite funny when you do get tossed off (your bike!) as your character gets thrown around like a rag doll.

When you first play, the graphics move amazingly fast, but it becomes a weird mixture of fast, smooth movement and incredibly jerky for absolutely no reason, thus rendering the game temporarily unplayable. Soundwise, the roar of the engines were conspicuous by their absence, despite the sound FX slider placed at 100%. I did, however, still hear the relentless metal dirge that passed for background music. Overall, this game is fun for a couple of hours, but that's about it.

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.