Reviewed: July 14, 2001
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
THQ

Developer
Pacific Coast Power & Light

Released: July 2, 2001
Genre: Racing
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone

9
9
7
7
8.8

Supported Features:

I always get a little nervous when any title tries to capitalize on a famous sports hero to sell a game. While some personalities like Madden and Tony Hawk have golden reputations when it comes to electronic versions of their chosen sports, others merely try to slap their name on some lackluster code and make some extra pocket change.

MX 2002 is my first game featuring the Ricky Carmichael license and I was surprised on several levels. First of all, this is a topnotch motocross racer featuring some of the best graphics, control, and track design I have played on a console or PC. Second is the actual lack of any real presence of Ricky himself. Aside from his name on the box and having him as a selectable rider there is really nothing about this game that warrants his endorsement.

In other games like Hawk and even McGrath you could get helpful tips and tutorials from the masters themselves. In this game, Carmichael is no more important than any of the other riders you can choose from. The use of his name is clearly a marketing ploy, and when a game is this good you have to wonder why they spent the extra money on a licensing fee for a game that could have easily stood up against anything else on the market clearly on its own merit.

MX 2002 succeeds on several levels. There are 20 courses, many of which are accurately modeled and reproduced from their real-life counterparts including a mix of outdoor courses and indoor stadium Supercross tracks. You can enjoy these courses in solo exhibition races, freestyle stunt mode, or two-player versus mode with split-screen racing. Of course the real meat of the game is the Career mode where you customize your rider and take him on a 20 week racing career riding both 125cc and 250cc bikes.

A motocross game is only as good as the control you have over the bike and the rider and MX 2002 offers some slick analog control. The pressure sensitive buttons allow for smooth acceleration and braking, and you are even required to learn advanced moves such as power slides and proper usage of the clutch.

Pulling off amazing stunts is a snap once you learn how to preload your suspension to get the "big air". Then it's just a matter of using the analog stick to spin or rotate the bike and using various buttons to pull off one or more amazing combos for points. There are over 28 tricks to master, so it will take considerable time to learn them all. Some of these tricks look impossible, but the live video footage before and during the game prove that these are tricks real riders are able to pull off. Just don't ask me how.

You then begin a 4-week amateur circuit that you must complete and place at least 3rd in to advance to the 125cc professional circuit. This circuit lasts for 8 weeks and if you place in the top 3 you can advance to the 250cc and do it all again on a faster bike.

Over the course of your regular racing circuit the designers manage to throw in some really cool distractions. From time to time you will get the occasional tutorial that teaches you advanced lessons such as stunts, stepping, and even proper use of the clutch. The tutorials are well placed within the regular racing season gradually easing you into the more challenging races. Before you know it you will find yourself cruising along at top speeds.

In addition to the tutorial lessons are the even more frequent special events such as stunt exhibitions, jumping school buses, and even a step competition which is much like a track and field high jump event. These special events don't affect your normal racing season, but they do give you plenty of opportunities to get your name on the high score list and give you a good reason to go back and play and replay these portions of the game. There's nothing more addictive than trying to squeeze in one more school bus in your next long jump attempt.

Unlike many racing games where you simply mash the accelerator and steer around the course, MX 2002 requires that you learn every inch of every track. Almost every track consists of dozens of moguls, bumps, or even steep hills. It takes a lot of practice to know how fast you should be going and the proper amount of preload to put on your suspension to achieve the best jump. Your goal is to always land on the down slope of the next hill or bump or at least flat ground. If your speed or timing is off you can land in the valley between bumps and come to an abrupt halt or even dump your bike.

Preloading is a technique used by riders to shift their weight to the rear shocks just before launch then at the last moment rising up to let the shock spring them to greater heights. The preload concept was first seen in ATV Off Road Fury and in that game it was simply a matter of using the analog stick to shift your body weight to the rear of the bike before a jump. This is similar to the weight shifting you could do on Microsoft's Motocross Madness series.

MX 2002 handles preloading a bit differently. You press the L2 or R2 button as you head up a ramp or hill. The longer you hold the button the more preload you achieve as indicated by the meter above the speedometer. If you start the preload too early the meter will start to go back down so knowing when to start is just as important as knowing when to let off. To get the ultimate air you need to max the meter just as you reach the peak of the ramp.

Once you are in the air you can pull off amazing tricks by holding down the L2 or R2 button and pressing any of the other buttons or twisting the analog stick to do flips, spins and various combos. The more impressive the stunt the more points you earn and the more stunts you can chain together the higher your score. You are also rated on your landing, so it's a good idea to have the handlebars facing forward and the wheels toward the ground or you could earn a negative score if you dump.

The physics seem to be perfectly modeled. Since I've never raced a real dirt bike on a real dirt track I cannot vouch for the amount of slipping and sliding you would really do. Speeds seldom exceed 50-60mph unless you are going down a steep hill but the "sense of speed" is accurately reproduced with the stunning 30fps graphics. Knowing when to pop the clutch for that burst of speed or quick-start off the line or putting your foot down for a power slide are all skills you will learn and eventually master if you want to remain competitive in the final stages of the career mode.

The computer AI is excellent but not perfect. The opponents get considerably harder in the later races and it almost seems that their skill is based on your standings in the overall season. I was bouncing back between first and second place for much of my career and whenever I was in first place the other riders seems to be very aggressive, often landing on me after jumps or knocking me over in turns. The computer is not perfect and you will often see them missing a jump or wiping out in a turn. There is also no artificial "catch-up" code in the game. The computer won't slow down and wait for you to catch-up if you wipe out. If you wreck more than 3 or 4 times you may just want to restart the race. Of course the computer could be having a bad day too so you may want to stick it out.

The game also mixes up the season by mixing in Supercross tracks with outdoor events. The Supercross tracks are difficult to master, as they are full of moguls and ramps that require precision jumps. One wrong move and you could find yourself spinning your tires trying to get out of a deep ditch. The indoor tracks while shorter in distance are also 5 laps long giving you plenty of chances to mess up or catch up.

The crash system seems to be a bit weird at times. It appeared to me that whenever I dumped my bike no matter whose fault it was I would start where the bike ended up after the slide. On more than one occasion I would wreck and several riders would pass me (even run over me) then all of the sudden I would magically be back on my ride and ahead of them all because my bike had slid a few hundred yards ahead of me.

Another complaint is the arbitrary boundaries of the courses. For the most part the edge of the regulation riding area is clearly marked with physical items and if you stray off course a yellow or red arrow will indicate where you need to go to get back on track. Sometimes the degree of your error is not consistent though and on some courses you can stray from the track several feet while others give you a bike's width of error. Of course the result of going too far off course either on ground or in the air is the dreaded clothesline effect where your rider is ripped from his bike by the neck and both tumble to the ground. It's only a minor complaint though and real riders are going to stay on the track anyway.

The courses are enormous and you can explore them in detail. One outdoor course takes place in a canyon with a stone archway and several dirt ramps and a dry riverbed. I explored the riverbed and found it led to an underground cave that led to a completely new hidden canyon with even more ramps. The terrain textures are definitely not as detailed as the riders and other objects in the game but they still look great and the draw distance is almost to infinity with no fogging or other cheap tricks to hide pop-up, which is simply not existent. You can see to the horizon and the sky graphics are amazing with bright sunny days and orange-red sunsets.

Many of the courses have been accurately reproduced from topographic maps, and satellite photos to recreate each course in exacting detail. You can be sure every mogul and bump on the track is scaled and located in the exact place it is in real life. The amount of care and attention to detail in the course design is unlike anything I've seen since the golf course designers for LINKS started reproducing famous golf courses.

There are plenty of amazing movies, both at the beginning and at the end of each season. These feature real riders doing amazing stunts accompanied by a great contemporary grunge soundtrack that we've all come to expect from extreme sports games.

You can race from any of three views although none of them are first person. Having raced from a first person view in other games I know how hard (if not impossible) it is to race from the handlebar view so I didn't really miss it. The replay system features a floating camera that you have full 360-control over with full zoom capabilities. You can re-watch the entire race from just about any view you want, freeze the action and pan around, fast-forward, or save the replay to your memory card to amaze your friend with later.

The music is good but gets repetitive all too quickly. There are only seven tracks so you will have heard all the songs halfway through your first professional season. I opted to mute the music during the races and found the sounds of my bike and those of my competition enhanced the realism of the entire racing experience.

While there are no "real secrets" to unlock in this game there are plenty of tracks that can only be accessed outside of the career mode once they have been "unlocked" in the career mode.

The freestyle mode will provide countless hours of stunt competition where you can master your stunts and combos and try to earn the ultimate in high scores. And when you have mastered every aspect of MX 2002 you can always challenge a friend in the two-player versus mode.

MX 2002 offers the standard two-player split screen versus mode for both racing and freestyle competitions. As always, it is disappointing when the two-player mode doesn't allow for a full field of computer-controlled racers to fill in the pack. Another nice touch is the ability to switch the screen split from horizontal to vertical. A vertical split is most desirable for freestyle mode where the taller window aids you in pulling off better stunts.

Even if you aren't a motocross enthusiast you are sure to enjoy MX 2002. The spectacular graphics, precise and accurate control, authentic sounds, challenging AI, and excellent gameplay all combine to make this one of the must-have titles for the PS2.