Downhill Domination Impressions

[goldbricker]

This is a new mountain biking game done by the team behind Twisted Metal Black on the PS2. From my first few games of playing it it reminds me of SSX Tricky on a bike. You can perform stunts which increase your "battling" skills ranging from punches and kicks to throwing bottles at your opponents. The game runs at a blistering speed and has a smooth framerate from what I've seen so far.

The tracks have a nice interactive feel to them. There's more than one way to get to the bottom and there's some nice scripted events such as trees getting struck by lightning and setting on fire. There's also small wild animals roaming the tracks which you can give a smack and watch them go flying.

I played the multiplayer version as well which can go up to 4 player via the multitap and this seemed a lot of fun although it did seem that if you get ahead early you were pretty likely to stay ahead (or maybe I'm just rubbish).

The only other MTB game I played was on the PS1 by Codemasters and I don't think it was that special. This seems to have a kind of madcap arcade feel that makes it a lot of fun. There seems to be a few things to unlock one being called Megajump which certainly appeals but we'll have to see if this is any good once I start to play the 1 player game.

[Big Al]

I've also played this and thought it was superb.

VERY SSX though. I think that's a good thing but some people might not.

[Che Musashi]

Another Icog game I must have. If they keep this up I'll buy anything with their name on it...

It looks like the kind of bucketloads of fun kind of game I need to have. Maybe I'll get it when I pick up Evo...

[rylee]

This looks like good fast fun in the movies I've seen. How do the stunts work? Can you chain them together?

[2097]

im interested in this but worried its going to be another frustraiting pile of crap like EA's freekstyle was.. *sigh*

[goldbricker]

I've given this more time and it is a great little game. The speed that the game runs at is incredible you really feel like you are belting it down a very steep hill.

The courses are incredibly varied in one course that I played which was based in Japan you start off at the top of a mountain and pass through caves, underneath the roots of trees, over the top of some buildings then blast through some steam baths with people bathing in them with you knocking them over left right and center. The other great thing is that there is no fixed path to the courses and the routes are totally flexible. In most cases where there is a path that curves round you can cut straight through the middle through some trees where you can save some precious seconds but run the risk of being introduced to a tree at high speed.

You get powerups mid-race, such as turbos, quick restores (means that if you crash you return to the race quicker), stamina increase (while your stamina is up you can pedal much faster and increased attacking ability.

The stunt system is pretty much the same as SSX etc. You use the R2 button to jump and the other soldier button offer different combinations of moves. There are some huge jumps as well the sort of ones where you're in the air for 10 seconds!

In the one player career mode offers the ability to buy new parts and bonuses with the money that you win during races. When you compete in a race if you win the race it then you can move onto the next circuit otherwise you have to build up enough credits to proceed. The number of credits that you get depends on your position in the race.

One of the downsides to the game to the game is how quickly you can go from first to last. You might be winning a race by a good margin and then balls it up right at the death and end up coming last. I suppose this is a punishment for not concentrating hard enough and in fairness it is easy enough to go from last to being towards the front with a couple of crafty moves.

[Cobertizo]

I know this is a remarkably odd thing to ask, but what is the Freezepop music track like? Frequency has made me rather a fan of theirs, and I believe that one of their tracks is in Downhill Domination...

[Max M]

There's also small wild animals roaming the tracks which you can give a smack and watch them go flying.

Sold!