Gravity Games Bike Screenshots The Final Say! Gameplay 6.5 Graphics 7.1 Sound 8.0 Value 5.9 Gravity Games Bike - reviewed by Andrew B Review Date: 29th September 2002 Review Score 6.5/10 Distributed By: Acclaim

Ever since theamazing popularity of the Tony Hawk series, extreme games have become a staplediet of the console world and this title is no exception. Gravity GamesBike is the new extreme bike game from Midway that features many of the worldstop BMX professionals. It's time to grab your BMX and start performing thoseamazing freestyle manoeuvres that mere mortals cringe at. Gravity Games Bikeboasts the following exclusive features of this title; Exclusive Gravity Games License 21 Characters to choose from including edgy fantasy riders and 7 top pros! 10 HUGE freestyle environments 5 insane game modes Get mad air with more than 1500 mind-blowing tricks Killer music from Disturbed, Sevendust, 311, Adema, Sugar Ray and more! Get up close and person with pro riders in behind-the-scenes DVD footage. PlusDVD Extras! Gravity GamesBike contains four different gameplay modes that include Quick Start, CareerMode, Free Ride and Multiplayer. Quick Start lets you ride any of the levelsthat you have unopened in career mode. Free Ride is similar to Quick Start butlets you select any of the riders and bikes, provided that you have unlockedthem. Career mode issimilar to other extreme games where you must complete a variety of challengesin order to proceed to the next area. Many of these challenges are quite fun todo such as smashing neon lights, collecting letters to make up words, scoring25,000 points or performing wicked manoeuvres.  The developershave gone to (excuse the pun) extreme lengths in creating an original and uniquegame when it comes to the challenges that you must perform. For example on laterlevels you must stop vandals from destroying public property.  Theunfortunately part of Career mode is that you are limited to a timer andsometimes it is almost near impossible to achieve some objectives. Perhaps inthe future more games such as this will take heed from titles such as AggressiveInline that doesn't have you racing against the clock. Themultiplayer option lets two players battle it out on five different games thatinclude a high score game, grind attack, best run, high five and team attack.

The controls of Gravity Games Bike are probably one of the most difficult to master because of the complexity of them. The controls of the bike work like a charm but when it comes to pulling off the more difficult tricks, you will be left extremely frustrated. There are literally hundreds of different tricks that you can perform in this game and I'm sure that if you can master the control system, this game can only get better.

Graphically, Gravity Games Bike isn't the most impressive game on the market and the riders (compared to Tony Hawk or Aggressive Inline) look rather dull in comparison and feature a fairly high polygon count but low texture details. Fortunately many of the playing environments are quite spectacular graphically and features a fair amount of detail and interactive objects. The game does suffer from frame rate drops every now and then but it's nothing really to worry about because of the majority of time everything is quite smooth.

When it comes to music, Gravity Games Bike is truly a winner and features some excellent international bands such as Sevendust, 311 and Sugar Ray. With extreme games, it is important that you have a decent soundtrack and Midway has succeeded in this area. You can even create your own play lists while you are playing the game, ensuring that your favourite songs will only be playing. There are not too many sound effects in the game when it comes to you peddling the bike but there is some background ambience to help with the games atmosphere.

In conclusion, Gravity Games Bike could of been the next big thing but unfortunately it didn't receive the final polish from the developers. The biggest problem with the game is the control system that can be quite difficult in pulling off certain tricks in the game not to mention some of the objectives in Career mode are very annoying. If you are a BMX or extreme games fan, then check this title out...otherwise you might want to rent before you buy.

- Andrew B