No Fear Downhill Mountain Bike Racing
Score: 95% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Codemasters Developer: Codemasters Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: In one word - OUTSTANDING!!! The graphics in No Fear Downhill Mountain Bike Racing have just the right amount of detail to allow the framerate to continue, while making gameplay fast and furious. The only problem I encountered was when there is a biker immediately behind you and the camera seems to 'go inside' of the biker, making parts of him/her disappear. As for the music - you will not need to mute the volume and pop in a CD to your audio player for this game. The sound FX are pretty good too. You will know when you don't land that jump smoothly, because you will hear your character grunt and groan!
Gameplay: Ahhh - the heart of a game, and the reason to buy. No Fear did well when choosing to sign on with Downhill Mountain Bike Racing (DMBR). The gameplay of this title is superb. When you slow down, you are allowed to turn more sharply, but you will definitely 'feel' like you are in the game as you struggle to get your bike up to speed again! In single-player mode, you will work to get first place in each of the courses, while unlocking more courses and more options for tweaking your mountain bike. And when you consider the 2-4 multi-player mode, the game only gets better. FINALLY, someone did split-screen right!!! Don't be fooled, however. When I say 4 players, it is still only 2 on-screen at once, but the way DMBR accomplishes this is by shrinking the screen and making two 'boxes' instead of two vertical 'rectangles.' I find this much easier to view while plummeting toward the finish line - ultimately you are given more a better view of the entire track.
Difficulty: There are 3 levels of difficulty in DMBR: Amateur, Pro, and Elite Even at the Amateur level, you will notice that you will have to restart your races at first. And for the life of me, I can't seem to get by some of the Pro tracks!!! The cool thing about this game is the simple fact that in order to play a harder difficulty, you must first successfully complete its preceding level of difficulty. I wish more games did this! If you are like me, you tend to play the easy or medium difficulty with full intentions of playing the hard after completing the game, but then loose interest and go on to a new game. This style is very effective, as you will keep interest by unlocking new features in the game as you go.
Game Mechanics: After unlocking many options to tweak you mountain bike (frames, tires, suspension, etc.), you can tackle each course with a different style of racing. I completely love the physics engine of DMBR! Thankfully, you can hold down the 'X' button to pedal, but you will have to vary your style to coasting or you will loose stamina in a hurry. For the first time that I have seen on a racing game, you are allowed to jump outside of the given track. Of course you will crash, but it is better than hitting that imaginary wall and landing the jump without problems. All racing fans will love the many features in this game!!!
-Woody, GameVortex Communications AKA Shane Wodele
New World Order PGA Championship Golf 2000