MX 2002 Featuring Ricky Carmichael

 It's time to go back to the "racing games based on motorsports I know absolutely nothing about" well once again. This time, we're stepping out of our stock cars and hopping on our dirt bikes.

I talked in the NASCAR '99 review about how little I knew of stock car racing. Well, if I know very little about NASCAR, I know next to nothing at all about motocross. Should I be capitalizing motocross? Is it a proper noun? I know that it's essentially racing on dirt bikes, but I don't know any of the rules. I couldn't tell you what the big events are or where the top venues are or who the top riders are. I've heard of Ricky Carmichael, but he was the only member of this game's roster I had recognized. So basically, I am going into this blind, at least when it comes to how the subject matter is presented. That said, I've played a lot of racing games over the past three years, probably more than I had in my entire life, so I'm starting to learn what makes these title good and what makes them bad. Which side of those did MX 2002 fall on? Neither.

MX 2002 isn't bad by any means, but it does absolutely nothing special and really doesn't offer much outside a solid, if uninspired racing experience. I will say, the presentation was pretty solid for the era, it opens with an early 'aughts-tastic video of guys on dirt bikes doing sick jumps, set to the song "Superstar" by nu metal outfit Saliva. Those guys seemed like they were everywhere back then. All of those bands seemed like they were everywhere back then. Credit to the developer/publisher here though, MX 2002 did have licensed music at a time when that wasn't necessarily a given. There are only a few songs, but they were by legit big bands of the era. It wasn't the first game to ever include licensed music, but it did beat the much bigger Madden series to the punch by a year. Developers Pacific Coast Power and Light (I looked it up and that was the legit the name of the developer, not a power utility of some sort) did a good job of incorporating said music into the gameplay, though I wish it were a bit louder. It kind of gets drowned out by the sounds of the engine revving and tires screeching. At least the sound effects are good, but the graphics are just okay. They did a good job of providing varied locations, they obviously weren't all realistic motocross tracks, but as someone that doesn't care about that I was fine with it.

The controls are pretty tight, there really wasn't much to complain about there. You can accelerate, brake, power slide and do tricks, and everything is relatively responsive. It was a bit difficult for me to get used to the physics, but that was more because they actually did a good job of creating a realistic engine than because they were bad. This isn't Mario Kart, power sliding is important but if you lay on the slide going into turns, you are going to fall off your bike. That was frustrating the first few times it happened, but also very realistic. The strong animation also helped in this regard, you could see when your rider was starting to go south an lay off the button with relative ease. But if you were already tipped sideways, you were going over even if you did let go. Again, frustrating to deal with as a gamer but very realistic, especially for the time. You had very little control once you went off a jump, but again, they were going for realism. You really don't have very much control when you jump a motorcycle off a ramp and most video games don't convey that as well as this one did.

While they tried their best, I do think the track design was generally uninspired. From what I've seen, there isn't really that much to differentiate motocross tracks to begin with and that really stood out here. A few of the locales were different, but that doesn't really change the fact that most of these were just similarly shaped lines of dirt, to the point that they even felt like they had all the turns in the same spots. The jumps were a little more varied, but that really wasn't enough to break the feelings of same-ness. That the riders all seemed to play identically didn't help either. I honestly don't remember ever seeing stats or ratings for any of them and I wouldn't be surprised if they all weren't truly identical outside names and numbers. It's here where it felt like MX 2002 didn't really know if it wanted to be an arcade or simulation style game. On one hand, you had track design and physics that seemed to hint at the latter. But some of the track locations seemed to indicate the former. At least their locations did, the design felt a lot more like a sim and that was kind of jarring. Either give me all realistic dirt tracks (which most of the tracks seem to be designed to mirror) or let me race in antarctica on a course packed with shortcuts. Instead, I get my race in the south pole, but with a standard track with no real shortcuts or secrets to speak of. Sense of speed here was okay, not the best but passable and seemingly in line with the speed of the vehicles you are using.

There is a career mode, which felt like a little bit of an afterthought. You create a rider (though you have limited options) and advance through the ranks, trying to win the championship. There are tutorials and training sessions sprinkled throughout, which were nice to help you learn the ins and outs of the game. The problem is that that was really all there was to do. I guess it was great that they included it, career modes weren't really a given at the time, but it didn't really add much to the game. As a whole, there really weren't too many gameplay modes. The game does make up for this somewhat with the variety of challenges it offers. These were sort of like trophies, you complete a task to unlock them and they range from easy to damn near impossible. In a way, this was sort of ahead of its time, games have always had achievements but these were way more similar to modern trophies than you would see in a title of this era. That's great if you are into that stuff, but never really have been. I know there are gamers that play games almost exclusively for trophies, but I'm not one of them.

My last complaint is going to be about the trick system, which, while appropriate for the game, seems like it doesn't really serve a purpose other than to just exist. I've seen plenty of footage of motocross riders hitting tricks off of jumps, so I know it's a part of the sport, or at least some part of the sport's culture. But I'm not sure what, if anything, it's really for in MX 2002. You can perform tricks when you go off jumps, but they don't really seem to do anything but give you points. I guess it's better to have a trick system than not, but for something they put so much time into explaining and dedicate so much of the control scheme to, you would think it would do more. Credit where it's due, at least it fits in with the realistic physics. You aren't going to be able to just do triple backflips without wiping out, these are relatively realistic-seeming BMX tricks. But it would have been nice if you got something out of pulling them off other than unlocking achievements.

Like many of the games I look at MX 2002 isn't necessarily a bad game. However, it doesn't really offer all that much to the average games. It's an okay racing title that is well made, but somewhat uninspired and just generally bland. It wasn't a mess from a technical standpoint, the controls work and the graphics and sound are serviceable, but just being functional isn't going to cut it. Maybe it's just me, because it did feel like there was a lot I was missing here. Maybe someone who is more familiar with motocross will find more to like with this title than I did. But there just wasn't much there for someone who is a general gamer or even a fan of racing games. It's not necessarily a title to avoid, but I wouldn't seek it out either.