I've been saying that Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX is very similar to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but my comparison between the two games isn't completely positive.
The biggest difference between THPS and THPS2 was that there was a much wider variety of objectives that could be completed to advance through the game. It is my opinion that once you play THPS2, it's hard to go back to the first game because of all the tweaks and gameplay additions that have been added in the sequel. Think of playing a game like Quake 3:Arena, with an advanced engine, and then playing a game based on the Quake 2 engine, it's kinda like trading in a Ferrari for a Honda S2000, both are good but one is significantly better. Because Mat Hoffman is based on the first Tony Hawk game, and I'm more used to the sequel THPS2, it did feel like Mat Hoffman was missing something. I also found the low number of level objectives to be frustrating because it was difficult for me to reach certain goals, and thus slowing my advancement through the game.
The frame rate was my second issue. It's not that Mat Hoffman was plagued by slowdown, but it did seem to be running at slightly less than 30fps. The reason I say this is that the game felt a little choppy, and even though I don't have THPS or THPS2 in my Dreamcast collection right now, I could have sworn that both games had a smoother frame rate. For those who worry about frames-per-second issues, the rate was quite consistent even though it didn't seem to be as smooth as I was expecting, but I never ran into any significant slowdown, and gameplay was never hindered in any way because of the frame rate.
Grinding on wires in no problem in this game. |
Of course, in all third person perspective games, there is at least some issue with the camera. On a few occasions, I had a problem with the camera lagging a little behind, and causing me to crash land because I couldn't see how to properly land a trick, but this was quite infrequent.
There was one gameplay issue that I really found annoying, on more than one occasion, I would try to pull off a specific trick, and the game would either not respond to my actions or it would do another trick. It could be issues with my Dreamcast controller, but I think that it's just an issue that plagues games that have dozens of combinations that require precise and timed button pushing.
Despite the fact that Mat Hoffman has 8 different BMXers to choose from, I found the replayability to be a little unsatisfactory. I'll admit that this is solely my opinion, as I am one of those gamers who doesn't usually play through a game over and over again once I beat it. I think with THPS2, I beat the game twice with two different skaters, and then lost desire to play through with the rest of the characters. Mat Hoffman, to me, suffers from this problem as well. However, I know there are plenty of you out there who will find the replayability to be quite fulfilling.
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX is a solid title, based on one of the most popular extreme sports games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. For anybody who has played THPS, will feel right at home with Mat Hoffman, as the controls and gameplay are very similar. Because Mat Hoffman is based on the first Tony Hawk game, there are a lot of tweaks and additions that I believe will give THPS2 fans a sense that something is missing. It's a great port from the original PlayStation game, but it offers nothing new other than better graphics at a higher resolution. If you don't have the PlayStation version, I'd recommend getting Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX for the Dreamcast. But if you already own the PSX version, your money might be better spent elsewhere. If you've never played either of the Tony Hawk games, or the PlayStation Mat Hoffman game, I'd suggest starting with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Dreamcast first, as it was the most impressive of all of the titles.
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