Written By Shaun McCracken
BMX XXX is a game that gained so much attention for it's content, that it
seemed like it was a must play game to see what all the fuss was about. But then
it encountered problems for it's release. Many places wouldn't carry the title,
so many probably wouldn't have had the chance to play this game. So right there,
Acclaim takes a fairly big loss on the game. Then with the lawsuit from Mirra with
a whole bunch of allegations that stemmed from this game (even though the pro riders
were taken out of the release), this is probably one of Acclaims biggest dissapointments.
But when you actually get into the game, you can't help but to think what all the
fuss was about.
BMX XXX is pretty much the successor to Mirra 2, except you really can't distinguish
any "enhancements" made to the game. The framerate has been locked down a little
more, but thats about it. The graphics are the same, if not a little downgraded.
The soundtrack is pretty much in the same vein as the other BMX release. And even
the controls are the same. So what's so special? Well, the content of the game
was designed for mature auidences. There's a lot of swearing, a lot of adult
themes and even some nudity. But the way it's all presented is like a faceplant
on the sidewalk.
First, let's talk about the scripting of the game. BMX XXX supposedly had
"Hollywood writers" for it's humor and character elements. What we see and here is
something that seems like it took about two hours to come up with, and only sounded
funny to the writers at the time. The jokes and the humor really falls flat. If
the idea of hearing the same f-words over and over is funny, then your life must
be a sad existence. And instead of calling things of what they should be, they came
up with some rather retared euphamisms that is also not funny. Who calls a port-a-potty
a "sh*t box"? The characters that are tossed in to this crude environment is
very low class. Pimps, prostitues and hobos fit the bill here. This ain't funny.
This is pretty much rejected humor from a Rob Schnider movie. If you wan't to
see a very well scripted game that is loaded with humor, check out the "You Don't
Know Jack" series.
Now we get to the "controversial" nudity. I guess it was so bad, Sony made
Acclaim take it out of the PS2 version, and the X-Box version made it difficult
to make a topless player (it can be done). But as funny as it seems, the Nintendo
version has the option to create a topless rider off the bat! But is it all that
important? Not until you see how the body looks. There are some of the sickest
looking boobs I've ever seen, dressed or undressed. If these women were supposed
to be sexy, Z-Axis has an odd perception of beauty. Beach Spikers, an E rated game, mind
you, had much more gorgeous player models, and that was just a volleyball game.
Then there's the "Scores" videos of actual women prancing around, which really
doesn't seem all that bad to me (content wise). There is a girl in a wet T-Shirt
in the opening credits, so perhaps that's something to look forward to.
The graphics in this game are average at best. The overall design never really
changed from 2001's Mirra 2, and now the textures seem a little more blurrier.
There game's color palate is fairly bright to be taken seriously (which was Mirra 2's
problem). The rider models are not that good, as they look kind of rigid in their
design. Take a look at a game like Freekstyle, then look at this and you'll notice
a difference. The game does run at a constant 60 fps and the camera was fixed a little,
but it just doesn't help the overall look. Plus, theres some pop-up.
The sound is fairly decent, if you ignore the voices. The soundtrack is compiled
with some listenable tracks, including artists such as Saliva, New Found Glory
and 311. But then we get to the voices, which is where most of the humor is
contained. There's a lot of swears to be heard here, but they become very repetitous.
There's only a couple of funny moments, but for the most part, it's just not good.
And all this can be traced back to the poor scripting.
Basically, BMX XXX is Mirra 2 with just a lot of dirty humor and a tad bit of
nudity. There's nothing much that is new, and really is set a step back from the
2001 release of DMF BMX 2. On top of that, the objectives are even harder and
paced even worse. Why, after doing so well with Aggressive Inline, would you
resort to lowering your standards on this game. I'm not sure if it was Acclaim
or Z-Axis who made the decision to porn up a BMX game, but it was a really poor
decision. It's a shame that the BMX category isn't as broad as other areas of
extreme sports, and the unfortunate truth is that the better game in the series
is one established one year back.
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BMX XXX
