Gravity Games BIKE: Street. Vert. Dirt

You've seen plenty of titles like this already. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. Dave Mirra BMX Freestyle. Midway has put forth BIKE: Street. Vert. Dirt. as a direct competition to such games, but in my opinion, doesn't provide enough entertainment to make it worthwhile.

Like almost all games of this genre, it uses the same cookie cutter construction that everyone else has gone with. This means you're getting a Free Ride mode, a few multiplayer games, and a career mode. The meat of the game is the career, where you complete a series of challenges within the stage (usually with a 2 or 3 minute time limit), with new levels awarded depending on how many challenges you beat.

I'd be happier playing it if the game weren't so hard to control, as for some reason, your bike tends to turn sharply, get hung up on things easily, and has an auto-correct that makes taking ramps a bit difficult if all you're doing is building up speed. There's a standard complement of stunting abilities, and you've also got to manually control your spin speed using two of the shoulder buttons.

Lastly, with a traditionally good soundtrack (if you like some of the bands they offer, like Sugar Ray, Sevendust, or 311), and only so-so graphics, SVD doesn't leave you with a pretty package to look at, even with the PS2 capabilities.

It seemed to me that more than one level seemed heavily inspired (borrowed) from one of the more popular games in this genre. This might be worth a rental, but since they don't even have a track editor, I definitely wouldn't put this on my shopping list.