" You can make the game say, 'Player two you are a pansy ass.' "

      Title: Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX by Activision

      Format: Extreme sports for PS

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: Race BMX and pull off hundreds of combos and signature moves in 8 realistic street, and dirt courses, create your own course with the 3D level editor, three modes of multiplayer, Soundtrack featuring Pennywise, Bad Brains and more!

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Graphics: Every once in a while I am impressed with how a PS game looks even without the improved texture-mapping feature of the PS2. This game looks great, what can I say. The textures are really good, and the character animations are pretty fluid, and there is never any slow-down. Some of the textures tend to be a little too much (like the ripples in Matt Hoffman’s shirt) and end up looking stupid rather than cool, but for the most part they are excellent. 4 out of 5.

      Sound: The sound effects in this game are spot-on. They are accurate and crisp. Especially cool are the crashing sounds accompanied by a good hard grunt when you biff a trick. The music is certainly fitting to the style of game. It is exactly the same music you would expect to hear watching the X games. But there could have been more added. I for one like the games, like SSX, that have announcers excitedly shouting out the names of the amazing tricks that you pull off. Hearing their excitement at your prowess really helps to get your adrenaline going. But as it is you have to supply your own announcer. 4 out of 5.

      Game Play: Two words: Very Smooth. It takes a while to learn the trick combinations, but after you do they are pretty easy to pull off. The main aspect of this game is staying original. Repeated tricks are worth less points each time you do them, so of great importance is learning to always have something new that you can rely on. The game requires many things from you as a player. It is not one of those games that just requires trick after trick after trick. The game challenges you’re riding skills by making you collect, or knock over various objects, and tests your exploration skills by hiding secret covers in the levels. 4.5 out of 5.

      Level and Environment Designs: The levels are greatly varied and they are designed in a way that offers players tons of different methods in which to pull off their tricks. The levels are very large and allow you to pick up speed between jumps and explore your surroundings, but they are also littered with ramps so you don’t have to ride all over if you don’t want to. They are also cool to look at with great texturing and imaginative layouts and locations. And perhaps the best part is the level editor where you can make your ideal bike park and save it for all your friends to try. 4.5 out of 5.

      Multiplayer: This is probably the best aspect of this game when compared to its spiritual brother (Tony Hawk Pro Skater) because two of the three two player modes in this game are split screen modes where both players play at the same time. And of course the modes are really fun. In the graffiti mode, whichever player tricks off the most surfaces wins. In trick attack the person to rack up the most points in the time allotted wins. And of course the classic HORSE mode where one person sets the standard and the next person has to match or beat it. The really cool thing about HORSE mode is that you can set the length of the game by making is spell whatever you want to, which is especially cool because you can make the game say, "Player two you are a pansy ass." 4 out of 5.

      Replayability: With a game like this replayability is very high. The game is all about having fun performing crazy stunts. Anybody who enjoys watching the X-games will delight in being able to do all of those fancy tricks. And of course all of the different courses make it fun to just explore environments and find new ways to put together awesome combos. Add in the multiplayer madness and your own track editor, and you have yourself a game that will have a permanent slot in your revisit library. 4.5 out of 5.

      Story/Dramatics: There is no story, end of story. 0 out of 0.

      Instructions and Learning Curve: The instructions are very good at getting you started. They tell what all the controls are, and even let you know what tricks work really well with certain riders. But after that, it takes a good while to get used to performing tricks and landing them correctly. It took me forever to figure out how to time my jumps so that I wouldn’t over rotate, or under rotate and end up smashing my face all over the pavement. 3 out of 5.

      Installation and Real System Requirements: One great thing about this game is that is has really fast load times. The game doesn’t push the Playstation to its limits, but it certainly takes advantage of the power that is there. It only takes up one memory card slot, and it supports the Dualshock controller analog sticks, and vibration functions. 4 out of 5.

      The Verdict:

OK so this game is basically Tony Hawk on a bike. It has the same engine, same play control, same style and everything. It’s not original in that way, but still stands ideal for all those people who like BMX better than skateboarding. And of course this game has the split screen two-player mode to boast. Overall it’s just a fun game that everyone should try.

      The Good: Good graphics, good sound effects, sweet two-player mode, and it has a track editor.

      The Bad: It’s not original, other than the fact that you’re on a bike, and the learning curve is fairly steep.

      The Overall Ugly: It’s Tony Hawk on a bike. Take it or leave it.

      What it's Worth: I’d pay $30.00 for it.