| Introduction
It's quickly becoming apparent that while the GBC
had more than its fair share of platform games, the
GBA has just as many skating and skateboarding related
titles. It seems like a new one is released each and
every week. You can hardly blame the publishers, however,
as the first Tony Hawk game for the GBA was an incredible
success for Activision. This isn't Acclaim's first attempt
at producing a game of this genre as the developers,
Full Fat, were also behind 'Aggressive Inline'. As Dave
Mirra is built on the same engine, you'll have to forgive
me if I throw up constant similarities between the two
titles.
GamePlay
If you've played any games even remotely connected
with Dave Mirra you'll know the drill by now - before
you strap on the wheels you'll need to select a skater.
It's then on to how you wish to approach the game, although
here many of the parks are locked until you earn the
required amount of cash.
Initially, you can access two of the nine available
in either 'Freeride' (which is self-explanatory and
simply allows you to check out the terrain) or 'Proquest'
(which challenges you to prove you are the best skater
by pulling off a multitude of tricks or Session where
you're required to complete a number of tasks in order
to earn cash). The tasks in question can be anything
from knocking over cans to performing an impressive
and lengthy grind session. There's no real way of getting
around this and you'll quickly discover that you need
to complete most of the various challenges before you
can unlock park number three.
As you become more familiar with the game you may
wish to restart and create your own rider or maybe even
change or purchase a bike, providing you've earned enough
money. Finding a friend with a copy of the game and
the required link cable will also allow you to sample
the multiplayer option which provides some extended
game play once you've completed the single player challenges.
These are essentially all head to head bouts with the
player achieving the highest amount of points, tricks
or combos declared the winner. Obviously, it's important
you know what you're doing here so challenging someone
who's only just got this game will provide you with
something of an unfair advantage.
Finally, Full Fat have also included a battery back
up system which simply prompts you to save after each
session which, at this stage in the GBA's life, should
be the very least every developer is offering.
Controls
Flipping open the instruction booklet reveals pages
and pages of tricks you can pull off by simply pressing
the correct combination of buttons. There are an impressive
number of these that can be achieved with a tight control
system making the whole process relatively painless.
On the down side, there's still some questionable collision
detection which means you occasionally end up on the
ground through no fault of your own. This is a very
minor quibble though and there have been notable improvements
since the last Mirra outing alleviating some of the
frustrations that were all too evident then.
Graphics
Whilst the presentation and menu systems are a little
above average, the various park designs are excellent.
As usual with titles of this type, everything is viewed
from an isometric perspective but impressively the skating
environments are much larger that previous outings and
the scrolling is incredibly smooth.
There's also some pleasing animation with the skaters
pulling off some incredible tricks. The range of possible
moves has increased considerably allowing you to perform
almost every maneuver you'd want. There is a downside
to all this though and as with the other Full Fat titles,
the character selection screen is less than inspiring
with bland and to be honest, extremely odd looking skaters.
Sound & Music
As with Aggressive Inline, the audio is outstanding
with Full Fat once again choosing to license actual
music which has been sampled with great care and attention
to detail. Most gamers will immediately recognize songs
from the likes of Green Day, Ten Foot Pole, Sludgefeast
and Saliva, which play throughout your BMX action. Obviously,
because of cartridge space these have all been edited
and looped but as most challenges only last around two
minutes and the join in the music almost seamless. you
really aren't likely to notice.
There is one minor drawback though and that's the
fact that each tune appears to be linked with a given
course. So unless you manually change the soundtrack,
you're likely to hear the first two tracks enough times
to make you truly loathe them.
Final Comments
Ever since the original Tony Hawk title was released
on the GBA some two years ago, it seems that almost
every developer has endeavored to leap on this most
lucrative of gaming styles. Fortunately, 'Dave Mirra
Freestyle BMX 3' is one of the more enjoyable games
in this genre (and did I mention just how good the audio
is?).
Minor control issues aside, there's also a fair bit
of game play here for your money and it took us some
time to unlock the third level, never mind the ninth.
Even after you've done this there's still the multiplayer
option to sample although you do require another copy
of the game to enjoy this feature. Acclaim appears to
be getting quite good at these type of games and it'll
be interesting see what they'll come up with next. In
the meantime, this is one extreme sports title that
you should check out.
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