Welcome to a small review of the MUD – FIM Motorcross World Championship game.
Thanks to Absolute Gaming in conjunction with the Xbox Community Network (XCN) for giving us the chance to have a hands on review of the game.
I must admit that I know and have known absolutely nothing about Motorcross, apart from the fact that it involves motorbikes, muddy conditions and hills off which the bikes jump in races. From a gaming perspective, Ive only ever experienced 1 motorcross game and that was on a PC. (no less than 10 years ago might I add). I loved the game back then, so was looking forward to this experience after a long time.
The publishers and developers of the game Black Bean promise to deliver a game experience that will be most challenging and fulfilling. We also know that it : is the only videogame that exclusively features the MX1 and MX2 championships, as well as the amazing Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. The brand new game engine features 14 different bikes, 84 riders (including stars such as Ryan Villopoto, Tony Cairoli, Chad Reed, Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen) and 12 official tracks, and also features fully deformable terrain conditions, a realistic MX handling model and much more
Right, time to get dirty! There are a few things to learn about the game if you know nothing about it and a nice little intro called “How to ride” will start you off in the right direction. It tells you all you need to know about “Heroes”, “Skills”, “Talent” and ofcourse, controls along with a few other bits and bobs.
At the Starting Gate
Have to add that you can play this game online as well but I thought I would stick to the campaign. The whole idea behind this is to win races as much as possible and collect coins for your crew and Hero. A hero is your Rider. There are 4 riders that you can control who all have various skills sets. The more races you win, the more coins you will collect and the more the chances of unlocking the heroes for a price.
You start off with Lars “Shredder” Keller. Hes a basic hero. Level 1 at every skill set. The skills sets available are: Edurance, Instinct, Agility and Strength. Each Hero is born with a Talent. A bonus number of coins is given for each with against the corresponding heroes talent. The various races available are: Elimination Cup, Checkpoint Race, Head to Head and Trick Battle (all do exactly they say on the tin). You can also customise your kit ie helmet & sponsor which you can unlock with coins the more you progress within the game. Other riders to unlock are Koji “Raiden” Hayasa, Zack “old Man” Brooks & Ivan “II Fusibile” Prelli
As I progressed through the levels, I noticed that the game was fairly easy. Surprisingly all the bikes that you get with the riders are pretty quick and I found it particularly easy to get to the leaders of the races within the first lap. The terrain and bike handling is fantastically realistic and the jumps vary from little rumble strips to huge ones.
I nice little addition is the “Evergy Drink”. This is a little can of an energy drink which gives you a short burst of speed which can help you when you need to push for that last second first place finish or when youre playing catch up after a fall. You can use this when you are about half way into your first lap. Keep in mind that initially, when you use Lars, the Energy drink effect wears off very quickly and you will need to buy Endurance in order to make this effect last longer.
Within the races, just before the jumps you charge up whats called a “Scrub” . This is defined in game as a boost just after a jump which is very handy “If you get it right”. Charge up too early, and you end up falling off your bike or performing a “Wipe” which is a fancy kick of the back wheel. Gains you no boost, but pleases the crowd and unless youre in the lead, you will fall behind. Charge up to late and you get no boost either. You have to make sure that you also let go of the scrub button before you land otherwise you will take a fancy tumble. I had plenty of those in my first race. However when you get it right, you get a huge boost which means you can make your opponents eat dirt!
If I could just take us back to the start of any race, you get to choose a starting gate from all that are available. Having first pick in every race is nice, but made me feel too prioritised. Black Bean have also added another boost available to you as a rider. The boost reminded me of Mario Kart. Press and hold the brake and hold down your accelerator at the same time. The whole idea is that you release the brake immediately after the gates go down. Get it a fraction of a second early or late and you start normally. I only understood this in my 4th event and still failed plenty of times after that. There are around 18 racers on the grid and quite a few of them get the boost right and you will wave goodbye to them as you see them zoom off, leaving you wondering sometimes how come you just cant get it right!
The other event that I enjoyed was the Trick battle. Now, don’t get me wrong, the check point race and Head to Head are quite fun, however I found them rather monotonous and lacking a challenge. Perhaps I was expecting too much? Anyway, back to trick battle. You have ramps to jump off , perform tricks in the air (you start off again with 4 basic ones) and you can purchase more from the Trick shop using coins. Heres a tip, try a Back Flip or a Front Flip and see how many coins it earns you.
Trick Battle
A couple of downsides to the game I thought was the ommission of a mini map, just so that you can see what type of corner is coming up or even where your opponents are in relation to you. Also another thing that irritated me was once I completed a race, I had to go back to the main Campaign menu. Which meant going into the event, selecting the race type and then the character again which was unecessary. Whats more, I found that bumping into other riders had no effect what so ever. This was a rather bigger let down as everything else seemed to affect the ability to stay upright, including brushing slightly against the wall around a corner or on a straight or even a small bump for that matter. In addition to the above, you cannot perform tricks during a jump in a standard race.
All in all, I wouldn’t say the game is bad. However, most of the little things in life (gaming life that is) make the biggest difference to your experience and which will determine whether you keep the game in the tray or not. I believe you would enjoy the game more against friends rather than against the AI. For those reasons, I would rate the game at 7/10.
The game is also available from our AG Store from as low as £16.93.