Written By Shaun McCracken
The late summer, early fall season of 2002 saw a bit of a flood of motorcross
titles for the Gamecube. Any game that pertains to the racing genre is much needed
on the GCN, but it doesn't hurt to have some MX games available, either. Currently,
as of April 2003, there are 4 motorcross games on the GCN I know of. This,
Jeremy McGrath Supercross World (which was dubbed the worst game of the year for the
GCN, as well as for the PS2 by a few publications), MX Superfly (which I will later
review) and the mediocre Big Air that was released before Freekstyle. So which one
is currently the better MX game? It depends on what you want. If you wish to play
a realistic MX game, then go with MX Superfly. But if you want more of a motocross
rush, then pick up Freekstyle. And in my opinion, Freekstyle is a more energetic
and overall accessable game (despite the difficulty level).
Freekstyle is the next game in the EA Big series, which means that everything
is fast, loud and pretty much acrobatic. Freekstyle tries to be SSX Tricky with
dirt bikes, and many make that comparison, but when you really compare the two,
Freekstyle is so much more difficult, and lacks the courses SSX has (SSX had 10,
Freekstyle has 6 plus 3 freestyle arenas). The stunts are as easy to pull, if not
easier, and both have a boost-for-trick system. I don't know. Comparing snowboarding
to motocross seems kind of bizzare, they're two different things, but in the case
of these two games, they seem to mimmic each other. I would say that Freekstyle
resembles a more enhanced version of the newer Sled Storm, which was also under
the EA Big label.
Freekstyle contains 6 main courses, that range from canyons to burning forests,
and the outskirts of Laughlin (even though it looks nothing like it). Even though
they're pretty long (some go for about 3 minutes each lap), it didn't seem like
enough, especially when you compare it to the amount MX Superfly had. I would
rather have 12 unique 1-minute lap courses than have 6 3-minute lap courses. And
when these courses have to be played 3 times in a row in the championship mode,
it gets very redundant. There are 3 freestyle courses which allow you to pull
as many stunts as you can in 3 minutes. And as funny as it seems, they made one
of the courses in Menifee, which is where I lived for a few years, went to high
school and where I attended college. And even funnier, it doesn't really look
like Menifee. Menifee is not a foresty-area, sure, there are trees, but it's mostly
dir roads unitl you get near the college or Sun City. Just pointing out how
accurate this game is not. But, this is an EA Big game, and reality left out the
door as soon as you mention EA Big. There is a sizeable amount of real-life
personalities such as Mike Metzger, LeAnn Tweeden and others. And they look kind
of close to the people they portray.
The game looks pretty sharp, athough I think a little more could have been
pulled off on the system. The game does run at a constant 60fps, which is very
good, but lacks some of what MX Superfly has, such as bump-mapping and lighting
effects. But Freekstyle is actually more playable on my TV, because it's much
brighter than MXS, and I don't have to guess where a turn is in darkness. The
textures are kind of flat, but do look like they should. Much like Extreme G 3,
the game moves pretty damn fast, so fast, that you may not notice all the details.
On a whole, Freekstyle does look better than some other games I've played, but I
think it could have had a little more portential in the graphics department. Not
bad, and the better of the 4 current motorcross games.
The sound, for a lesser word, is loud. The bikes are loud, as it the music.
Most of the music is rock, which may not appeal to some. The bikes sound like
very throaty dirtbikes, but I actually preffer this sound effect than the one in
MX Superfly. The bikes in that game kind of sound a little weak. Then we have
the sound bites from each rider, and that pretty much makes up the sound package.
It's ok to leave it on, just expect repetition.
The control is actually done well for this game. Bikes handle pretty well, and
the stunts are laid out on the X,Y, L and R buttons with Z being a modifer. I'm
sure the layout is better in the PS2 version, but the stunt functions here make a
lot more sense than what they did in MX Superfly. As for gameplay, it's there.
It seems like standard procedure for an extreme sport game.
Freekstyle is currently the best motorcross game available for the GCN, and
is also one of the fastest racers I've played in awhile. I really would have like
to have seen more courses, and shorter ones at that. Also, I think the AI difficulty
could have been tuned down. SSX Tricky was beatable, so why not Freekstyle?
A little challenge is fine, but forcing someone to play the same courses over and
over is a little much. Still, it's a fine package, and now for less than
$20, it makes for a great budget title. It's kind of sad to see a quality game
like this not getting the attention it deserves, but to the select few who play
it, they may be satisfied, if not a little irritated.
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Freekstyle
