MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX

Review

by Jon Thompson

MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX might feel suspiciously familiar when you first begin playing it. Although most of the "extreme" sports games have borrowed from the wildly successful Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise, T.J. Lavin's game seems as though it wants to qualify as a carbon copy. If you've played Tony Hawk before, it won't take you any time to figure out the control scheme to Ultimate BMX, since they're almost exactly the same. On the other hand, if you want an experience a similar game with its own ideas and concepts tossed in, you'll have to look elsewhere.

This isn't to say that there's no fun to be had with Ultimate BMX. These types of games, when done correctly, offer a sort of disposable fun no matter how much they fail to live up to Tony Hawk's lofty and exacting standards. Ultimate BMX falls into that disposable category. The controls aren't tight enough, the level designs aren't clever enough, and the whole package just isn't quite up to snuff for it to be considered a classic, but there's still some entertainment value packed in the title.

There are three different kinds of levels for you to take your bikes to, and the different riders supposedly have different specialties, but you'll be hard-pressed to tell most of them apart. There are really only a handful of "objective" levels, each one qualifying as dirt, street, or vert. These are the levels where you'll be given an objective list, such as object collection, score qualification, and the like, and completing these things will allow you to progress to the next level. Completing all of these will advance you to a competition level. Here you'll be scored, and once you get one of the top three spots, you'll go back to the previous levels, only now you'll have harder tasks to accomplish.

The objectives you must complete aren't terribly inspired, and all feel like retreads from Tony Hawk. Yet as you continue through the game, they at least become a bit more diverse and a lot more difficult, especially given that the control scheme isn't the strongest in the world. The buttons are set up exactly like Tony Hawk, down to the buttons on top that turn you and the position of the grind and jump buttons. While the control is the same, it jdoesn't flow nearly as well. It is much easier to wipe out because you figured you turned far enough, and often the bike will fly out from under you for no discernible reason.

The look of the game is less than adequate, however, given the nature of the game. It's the animation that stands out the most. While it isn't terrible, it doesn't flow nearly well enough, often becoming jerky, and the low frame rate is an issue throughout the game. The levels could certainly look better, although there are a few nice spots. And the game's music, which contains the requisite metal/punk sound that these titles often employ, is definitely from the b-list of bands.

While it certainly doesn't qualify as a great title in the genre, T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX is at least strong enough to occupy an afternoon or two, and if you're a tremendous fan of this particular brand of game, you might get some more fun out of it. However, if you've never experienced this sort of title, you'll want to give Tony Hawk's Pro Skater a try first.