I am big fan of extreme sports, going back nearly 4 decades to the days when I made my first wheelies (now called a manual) on my AMC Sandblaster BMX bicycle. In those days we were happy simply jumping our bikes over various objects, trying to emulate the work of our hero, Evel Knievel. At the time our entire library of tricks consisted of one-handers, one-footers, no-footers, and well…landing without crashing.
Over a relatively short period of time, the world of BMX transformed, and rather than riding exclusively on dirt tracks, bikers moved to parking lots and skateparks and a whole new genre of BMX – called freestyle – was established. Suddenly our magazines that historically highlighted the fastest dirt-track track racers became showcases for the cement-arena tricksters. I was never any good at freestyle riding, but I couldn’t deny the fact that freestyle riding was amazing to watch – and it sure made for some great magazine spreads. It wasn’t long before the trick library grew exponentially, and our one-handers and one-footers became combinations of flips, spins, fakies, and grinds.
Nowadays, the word BMX is all but completely associated with freestyle trick riding rather than dirt track racing. Which is fine, because it sure makes for more exciting video gaming for us old folks who cannot even fit on a 20-inch BMX bike, much less even think about jumping one. There has been a fair share of BMX games over the years – some great, some not-so-great – but for true BMX fans, it doesn’t really matter too much as long as you can have some mindless fun. And mindless fun is exactly what Saga Legends Games’ new PS4/PS5 release, Legends BMX, delivers for gamers. It’s not very deep, it’s not very involved, it’s not very difficult – but it can be a lot of fun if you give it a little time.
Legends BMX is all about skatepark riding – specifically what we would have called “Vert” (is it still called that?). Multifaceted cement pools and elaborate plywood playgrounds with which to chain together a series of high-flying trick lines in an attempt to get the highest score in a 50-second Time Run. The reward – get your name on the leaderboard and open each of the four stages. That’s all there is. I mean – that’s essentially all there is to it, because you can technically unlock more player skins and bike models, but they do nothing to change the game. Legends BMX a super-shallow game that doesn’t offer anything in character development, alternative game modes, online challenge, park editors, or any of the other features that we have been accustomed to in our extreme sports games. But that’s not to say it isn’t any fun – because it really is.
The game is played using a fixed 3D-isometric view from a relatively far distance. The characters seem quite oversized compared to the parks they ride in, giving an almost surreal look to things – like when you play bobblehead mode in Madden. Thankfully the environments and characters are actually rendered quite realistically, with accurate shadowing from the overhead lighting that really helps to determine where tricks will land to help the gamer determine their next trick lines.
The controls are relatively simple and intuitive – there is no pedaling needed, but the X-button is used to preload the bike immediately upon landing and just prior to launching – essentially pumping for a speed burst. Once airborne, the gamer uses the left stick for rotations and flips, the right stick for specific tricks. For instance, flicking the right stick will elicit a barspin, while pulling on the left stick will elicit a backflip. Chain them together and you have a barspin-backflip. Flick the right 3-times and it’s a 540 barspin backflip, etc. Gamers can grind the coping, but not using the tried-and-true triangle button, as that will irritatingly reset your character mid-trick – no you must use the R1 button for some bizarre reason. While riding flat or grinding, the gamer can use the left stick to initiate front or rear manuals. And that’s as simple as it gets…well except for the aforementioned triangle – why did they do that? And no, you cannot remap the controls.
The game puts the rider into freeride mode, but pressing the square will kick off a 50-second time run. It’s here where scores are accumulated and the gamer rides to get on the leaderboard. It’s a decidedly old-school setup that reminded me more of the arcade classic extreme sports game 720° than it does of the more recent classics like Matt Hoffman BMX or Dave Mirra BMX. Where the controls excel is in landing tricks – you really only have to know when to let go of the buttons for the player to automatically right himself for a landing – once you learn this it makes the game infinitely more enjoyable.
I’ll freely admit that I really wasn’t all that impressed when I first booted Legends BMX – it took some time to really grow on me. And it’s really not that impressive of an offering, even with the bargain basement price of $10. But the more I played for this review, the more I tuned myself to the controls – the more I started to sink into the couch in a causal Zen-like state that was a welcome change to the intense shooters and action-adventures that usually eat up my gaming time.
