There’s no denying it, our sport makes great source material for video games. Surprisingly, there hasn’t really been an abundance of solid mountain bike titles released to the home console market. Perhaps the most successful to date was the gravity oriented Downhill Domination by Incog for the Playstation 2, which hit the scene back in 2003. These days the PS2 clings to life while video game fans flock to current generation consoles such as Nintendo’s Wii and the Sony Playstation 3 but that doesn’t mean the old workhorse doesn’t have a place in our entertainment centers and hearts. Enter French developer Valcon whose American presence in the video game world is synonymous with slick titles for bargain basement prices. Realizing that mountain biking offers up all of the excitement, terrain challenges, and racing action that many other powersports-devoted games have capitalized on, they brought their PS2 title Mountain Bike Adrenaline stateside with an unbeatable $14.99 MSRP. The stir-crazy staff of MBT got our mitts on a copy of Mountain Bike Adrenaline and gave our thumbs a solid workout to determine whether Valcon has released a sleeper-hit or quiet bomb onto the market.
The Set Up
We’re going to assume you have a pretty solid grasp on the basics here. Like most outdoor sports games, Adrenaline centers on the idea of your virtual character taking on the mountain’s fury (which includes man built stunts, ladders, and skinnies) from the saddle of a licensed virtual mountain bike. The game breaks down into four categories:
Arcade: Free roaming environments in which collecting icons keeps you going.
Stopwatch: Racing against, you guessed it- a stopwatch.
Challenge: Like the name suggests, the game presents some wicked challenges to master ranging from Dexterity Challenges (balancing on ladders and skinnies to cross checkpoints) to Trick Challenges where the computer throws out a series of stunts that you have to bust before time expiries.
Freedom: This mode can only be unlocked by beating the challenges listed above but offers truly free environment exploration.
The game offers some sweet locations to romp on as well (Hawaiian Islands, Canada, USA, and France), which are broken down into real mountain ranges (with different terrain) such as the Rockies and the Alps.
Finally there are more than 80 bonuses to unlock as you progress from a helmet-less fool to a professional free rider. Best of all, the programmers have gone through the trouble of licensing real bike models from Lapierre, Kona, Cannondale, Qbikes and Specialized.
The Game Play
We have to admit, on paper, Mountain Bike Adrenaline sounds like a dream come true. Unfortunately some of the best ideas translate poorly onto the screen. The only way to be sure is to spend some time with the game in question; to play it until it glitches out or fries your brain until spring arrives. Adrenaline looks good, even on the now antiquated PS2 hardware. The frame rate is consistent and, unlike most games of the genre, the action is never dizzying or disorienting. Rather MBA takes a more methodic approach to the sport while integrating technical terrain, balance, and timing into the formula. Holding the X button gets you pedaling but drains your power meter so to succeed, the player must coast whenever the terrain allows it. Also unique here is a concentration bar that when activated slips the world into slow motion for a few moments. This is especially handy when negotiating tricky ladders and 2x4s that hover ominously across a 100-foot gorge. Rider animation is spot on and the bikes look pretty darn close to pixilated versions of their real-life counterparts. Crashes are pretty cool too, often looking pretty darn painful.
Unfortunately, this review isn’t all praise. The control is definitely a little awkward and takes some serious practice for even moderate results. Don’t get us wrong; the button control is laid out intuitively and can be mastered in seconds. Controlling the bike onscreen, however, can definitely be a lesson in frustration. Especially in the dexterity challenges, which are filled with wooden stunts and ladders, 90-degree turns, and cliffs below that require you to instantly start the level over should you topple. Expect at least a couple of hours of steady frustrating devotion before being able to successfully complete levels. We fear many will grow weary of the process before mastering the skills required and miss out on a fairly rewarding experience. In life patience is a virtue. In Mountain Bike Adrenaline it is a requisite.
In addition to the sloppy controls, the environments can lead to additional problems. The wooden obstacles always feel slippery, like the bike is riding on ice. This coupled with vague control results in many unwelcome wild rides. The mountainsides are loaded with foliage, rocks, and wooden fences, each of which can snare your bike and hold you annoyingly captive until you can wiggle your way out with the pre-jump button. A reverse control would have easily prevented a lot of stress here!
The Bottom Line
$15 really doesn’t get you much entertainment in the world of mountain biking. It doesn’t offer much more in the realm of video games either. That said, Mountain Bike Adrenaline is a worthy way to drop a few bucks, especially in the long cold winter months where every little fix helps. Just expect a rather steep learning curve before finding your rhythm- just like in real life.
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