An unsuccessful attempt at yet another extreme sports game.
After Tony Hawk Pro Skater and its seemingly endless supply of sequels (which are successively better than the last I might add), many game companies decided to capitalize on the success of the extreme sports genre. Why not bring that thrill of extreme sports to a crowd of young adults who are both video game enthusiasts and thrill-seekers? It is a valid question, but the responses that companies have given have been either hit or miss. Jeremy McGrath Supercross World is a blatant attempt to rip-off the success of Tony Hawk Pro Skater, right down to its title, but miserably fails to meet any Hawk-like standards.
When you load up the game, the first thing you notice is a rather glamorous shot of a motocross bike soaring through the air, with the Acclaim logo directly beneath it. It is probably intended to excite your senses, prepare the player for the fun just ahead. In a way, this is the only successful image in the game. Quite honestly, I was drawn into this image and ready to take on a series of dirt tracks while pulling off otherworldly tricks and stunts. This image is the only one in the game that captures a mood, one that is mysteriously lost when the game actually starts.
The graphics are poor. It is a port of a Playstation 2 game, so the quality of graphics is somewhat understandable. However, designers should keep in mind for future ports that if they are porting a game to a significantly more powerful piece of hardware, they should tweak the graphics. It runs at a steady framerate, but there is nothing on the screen that is furiously chugging numbers or using up the graphics chip. The menus look dated, reminding me of my Genesis days. They are drab and boring, text and a few graphics to reach the bare minimum. The in-game graphics unfortunately follow this same style. A small amount of detail is given to the rider and bike, enough to discern uniform numbers and decals. While looking through the instruction booklet and game box, I found a total of one in-game shot. The images on the back of the box were unrecognizable to me, most likely pre-rendered screens used during design. With this fact alone, that tells you how proud the designers must be of this project. When you fall off your bike, it reminded me of a primitive flipbook-two pages strung together to mimic the rider walking over to their bike. It is embarrassing and pathetic.
The control system is straightforward for steering the bike, but the trick system is awkward at first. Stunts can be pulled off by pressing the X button while in mid-air and then pressing a series of directional keys. I found this to be easier with the D-pad than the analog stick. This can lead to blistered thumbs due to the one flaw of the GCN controller-the small D-pad (see: SSX Tricky (GCN) vs. SSX Tricky (PS2)).
You can string stunts together to increase your point total, but when that happened, I found it to be rather arbitrary. Stringing tricks together does require a bit of skill, but by the time you master the game, it is questionable whether it was time well-spent. Just racing and driving the bike around shows a very responsive and tight control, giving it an arcade-like feel. If this was a straightforward motocross racer, it would be a semi-decent game. The physics are on the "bouncy" side, so it does suspend reality for awhile a la Tony Hawk. The rolling desert dunes of the Baja level and the huge dirt mounds of the indoor tracks had slight but noticeable differences in control nuances and mechanics. The levels vary depending on environment: Indoor, Outdoor, Baja, and Freestyle. The tracks are wide and something confusing, particularly on the Baja levels. The sand dunes stretch endlessly across the screen, your only guide is a flashing arrow at the top of the screen. The jumps are unpredictable; sometimes a small jump will be followed by a large jump, not giving the player enough time to gain momentum in between. This adds a level of complexity in the already difficult stunt system. Timing is everything in these trick-based games, and that is unreliable in Jeremy McGrath. (Note: There is a two-player mode, but I could not find a friend who even wanted to try the game out with me. They saw me trying it out and quickly left the room.) The AI is non-existent. One moment you are struggling to get back on your bike after a fall, and the next moment you are blazing past your competitors.
If there is one redeeming quality about the game, it is the soundtrack. Some songs sound like they came straight out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, the standard punk fare, which is shameless but rather entertaining. The rumble of the dirtbikes do little to stir my gaming frenzy. Since music is the only entertaining aspect of this game, why not just settle for a mix CD?
The bottom line: don't even bother with this game. If you want a decent motocross game, you will be better off taking the time to dust off your 8-bit NES and finding your Excitebike cart. If you sold your NES in a garage sale, then the Hawkman will have to hold you over until Jeremy McGrath leaves some track marks on the designers' plans.
