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In the race for the holeshot THQ's MX Superfly jumps out to the front of the pack. It's a somewhat rocky road to the finish line in what turns out to be a solid, but flawed effort. They've made great improvments over last year's MX 2002 Featuring Ricky Carmichael, but did they fix enough to take the crown...

Pacific Coast Light & Power have done a great job on the Gamecube version, offering smoother graphics and crisper gameplay than the PS2 version. I wouldn't put this is in the classics bin with the N64's "Excitebike 64", but its a good attempt that will satisfy most MX fans out there.

Graphics:

It's a good looking game, but not great. You won't be mistaking this for a PSX game, yet it still doesn't have that extra little something that I know the GC is capable of. The riders and bikes look great, while some bits of animation make you do the old "what the.." maneuver. The tracks look good on the dirt side, but the desert scenes can be a little bland, with some odd texture choices. Overall, if you say graphics are the most important part of a game, you won't be returning it to the store because the graphics are ass.

Gameplay:

MX Superfly offers a ton of options, and all the game modes we expect out of a next gen racer. Career modes, freestyle modes (where you try to pull of big air tricks for points), exhibition races and a variety of mini-games offer a lot of replay value. The heart and soul is in Career mode. You pick a racer, a bike, and an outfit, then go take on the world. You'll find some good depth here and it should provide a good couple weeks of fun. The included track-editor and mini-games (I've always wondered why my pizza guy doesn't ride a dirt bike) add to the replay value, and muliplayer is included and can be a good way to kill some time with a couple of friends.

Tons of tricks are included, and all are pulled off with relative ease after a couple hours of play time. You're not going to be pulling off crazy impossible moves, Tony Hawk style, but there's enough variety to keep the extreme crowd happy while allowing you to add some style points in your races. Good job overall.

But..

My biggest problem comes from the controls. They play that borderline arcade/realistic approach, and while they do well at making a valiant effort in appeasing both crowds, they left this reviewer wishing they had choosen one side and stuck with it. The bikes never seem to accelerate quite fast enough but seem to fly off jumps like gravity has been turned down a few more notches. You use the left shoulder button as a clutch, which adds some depth to the control scheme, allowing speed boosts while landing and cornering, but it seems somewhat clunky in use, and never felt natural while playing. Really, while at it's core it's a racing game, it's all about control. I know there will people who disagree with me, but that's where this game falls flat. It just never felt "right" and took the fun factor down quite a few notches.

Sound:

The bikes sound okay. Music will depend on personal taste as this game features the punk/rap standard soundtrack of the genre. I figure most of the crowd who will buy this will feel right at home with the soundtrack, and though I found it to be a step above the typical extreme game soundtrack, it still gets old pretty quick. You can always toss on your favorite CD and crank it up while you play, as I did.

Overall Impressions:

If you're looking for a motocross game, then your pickings are pretty slim on the Gamecube as well as on the racing front altogether, and you could definitely do much worse. This is by far the best of the bunch. The graphics are good, and there is a lot of replay value. Whether this game is a keeper or not depends on how you feel about the controls. Strict arcade control lovers should wait out for EA's SSX Trickyesqe "Freekstyle", while sim lovers might want to give this one a test drive.