MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little
Score: 68% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Crave Developer: Impulse Games Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little is a fun, stable, and engaging motocross game, even if it offers nothing extraordinary and is just the same old gameplay you’re already intimately familiar with. At this point, it seems that if you’ve seen one recent motocross game, you’ve seen them all. Truthfully, the graphics of MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little are fairly identical to the rest of the good motocross games out there, if a little less polished. They do their job well, and honestly, who cares too much about having the absolute cutting edge in graphics in a game like this. As long as it looks reasonably good, fans aren’t going to mind, and MX World Tour looks just fine. What is a motocross game without a healthy list of rock/metal songs to enjoy while you’re ripping up the dirt? Well, not this game, since MX World Tour carries no fewer than 11 songs for your listening pleasure. You also have the normal sounds of engines, crashes, and cheering fans, and Jamie Little’s voice is there with you every step of the way.
Gameplay: Despite Jamie Little being on the cover, she doesn’t really say all that much, except when you crash and burn. Suffice it to say, I heard her speaking a lot. There was a distinct lack of diversity in her statements though, and for any event there seemed to be only five or six various statements she would say. As with everything else, the game modes offered by MX World Tour are pretty standard. You’ve got your single-player Quick Race or Series and your multiplayer Quick Race or Series. There is also the obligatory Career mode that lets you customize a racer and put him through the paces. While the game modes may be standard, they simply aren't as appealing as many of the more expensive motocross games out there. MX World Tour is a fairly bare-bones racing game and doesn't offer the interesting environments and engaging styles of play that other games, such as MX Superfly, do.
Difficulty: I’m gonna be straight, I’m not terribly good at these games. For the first half hour or so, I was crashing every 30 seconds. I’m not sure if the controls were awkward or if they were just true to life. With a bit of practice, anyone can (eventually) get the hang of it. There are a few little tricks to maximizing your race performance in MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little. Thankfully, the manual tells you about these. I’ve seen many motocross games that would never mention them and you’d basically have to know a lot about motocross to even begin to perform well. So that’s a plus for MX World Tour.
Game Mechanics: Just as with the graphics, if you’ve played one recent motocross game, you’ve played them all. MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little has an identical control scheme and gameplay to almost every existing motocross game out there. Since that setup has worked just fine in the past, that’s not really a problem. The control stick controls your movements, face buttons allow you to accelerate, brake, and perform tricks, and the shoulder buttons let you control the clutch and jump boost. If you’re familiar with motocross or played any of these games in the recent past, you should be able to just pick up and controller and go, for the most part. You might still have to take a while to get comfortable with the way your bike reacts, as the controls and reactions of your bike don't feel quite as tight as other games. Basically, if you like these games you will probably like MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little. If you don’t, or suck like me, it might not be something you’ll enjoy. Considering they retail for $15 to $20, the price is certainly right. Oh well, nothing will ever beat Excitebike anyway.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
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