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Genre: Racing/sports

Format: CD

Developer: Left Field Productions

Publisher: Activision

Mac Port: Beenox Studios

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media

Minimum System Requirements: 1GHz G4, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 1.4GB disk space, 32MB 3D graphics acceleration (ATI Radeon 7500/NVidia GeForce 2 or better), 56K modem or Local Area Network (LAN) for multiplayer

Review Computer: 1GHz Powerbook G4 12" 768MB RAM, 32MB GeForce FX Go 5200

Network Feature: Yes

3D Support: Required

Price: $19.99

ESRB Rating: Everyone

Availability: Now

Demo: macgamefiles.com

Aspyr's latest offering, MTX Mototrax, currently holds the dubious honor of being the title that No One Wants To Review.

This is not because it's a bad game – it's not. But for some reason, no one—even Applelinks' own Kirk Hiner (ahem)—wants to review it. Look around any gaming site. Maybe check the MTX Mototrax TomatoPicker over at RottenTomatoes.com. Some people give it good grades, some people give it bad grades, but no one actually wants to review it.

This, I think, is emblematic of the place that anything involving wheels, gravity-or-the-lack-thereof, and copious use of the letter "X" holds in our collective gaming hearts. These EXTREME SPORTS TITLES (bolded just to make it that much more EXTREME, of course) are the game reviewer's equivalent of the insipid high school teen flick starring the latest flavor of the month actress-model-singer and costarring Heath Ledger. They're games, you know, and they could be pretty enjoyable, but what is there to say? These reviews are not the kind of thing you want to be showing up in a prominent place in your portfolio, that's all.

But, well, it pays the bills, so here I am.

MTX Mototrax is a motocross game. (Be forewarned: if you didn't already know what motocross was before reading this review, I highly doubt that you'll be interested in it after reading this review.) Essentially, "motocross" consists of having a lot of young, crazy men drive really brightly colored dirt bikes through really bumpy terrain, forcing them to go really high in the air for extended periods of time if they are to win the race. Don't worry, I imagine they get a kick out of it. (Personally, after getting used to racing hovercraft over alien landscapes in F-Zero at three hundred miles per hour, going up and down a lot on motorbikes doesn't seem all that entertaining. But I digress.) Of course, we can't just have a bunch of guys careening around on bikes in this age...that's so Excitebike. So, exotic mid-air stunts are in order, as well.

Mototrax has several different game modes available: the main draw is the career mode, where you get to start your own motocross career, competing in motocross (outdoor) tracks, supercross (indoor stadium) tracks, freestyle (stunt-based) events, and even cruise around in a free-ride mode around the levels, meeting people who will challenge you to races and other contests, teach you new tricks, and so on. The goal of this mode is to win money, get sponsored (and win even more money), unlock EXTREME biking gear, including new shirts, helmets, and, uh, stuff for your bike—presumably so you can get even more money—and generally get to be a Big Thing. If you're looking for a less involved fix, the tracks and equipment you unlock in career mode can then be used in an exhibition mode that lets you get into the game quickly, no career shenanigans involved. The various racing game-modes are all pretty self-explanatory; you try and get from point A to point B before anyone else does to win. The freestyle mode is also fairly obvious to anyone who's ever played a Tony Hawk Pro Skater game; instead of racing, you're given free reign to a course with an emphasis on performing combinations of tricks to wow the audience. Nothing particularly special here, folks.

Which is, I suppose, kind of the point for any extreme sports game. Except for the rare exceptions—NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater—sports games are games, not Art with a capital A like Battlefield 1942 or Metal Gear Solid, and they're not really intended to be. MTX Mototrax feels like less of a game as it does a $19.99 toy for people who like that kind of thing. It's meant for the people who already like it and doesn't really try all that hard to persuade you to if you currently don't. It is, much like this review, aimed at paying the bills, not at the history books, and it would be unfair to blame it for doing so, and expect every game to be another Tony Hawk.

MTX Mototrax ends up doing what it sets out to do just fine; nothing about the gameplay gets in the way of the motocross action. The graphics are appropriately detailed; shiny where the models are supposed to be shiny and dirty where they're supposed to be dirty. Considering that motocross and all its related events take place in lots of dirt, Mototrax does a good job covering that up in various locales: woodlands, desert, indoor arenas, and even more. Likewise, the soundtrack is appropriately average, with tunes that the people who like motocross generally tend to like listening to...which is, in this case, a hell of a lot of Slipknot. The controls are perfectly responsive, even on a keyboard, and of course they support USB gamepads in case you feel like digging out your hardware. Multiplayer support is included via GameRanger and LAN, and there were usually one or two games open for it at the time of this writing. There's even a basic, splendidly simple track editor mode if you're feeling creative.

In short, Mototrax has everything that a motocross game should have: solid graphics and sound, sufficient player customization options, separate game modes stressing different aspects of motocross, and extras like multiplayer and a track editor. There is nothing that Mototrax gets wrong, and for all this, the price is right. However, as with most games of its ilk, only people who are already interested in extreme sports and motocross will probably like this game. Everyone else should save their $19.99 for a month of World of WarCraft, or something. If you're not already into the adrenaline-soaked world of reckless driving and teenage rock, MTX Motocross isn't going to draw you in.