BMX Simulator

Copyright : Codemasters | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Ahhh I remember when the BMX was the biggest thing in the world and if you had one of these bikes you were classed as cool and despised by your friends. Codemasters did the clever thing and decided to cash in on the whole BMX racing thing with this the first simulator for your home computer, another reason never to leave your bedroom.

The idea is simple you can plug two joysticks into your Amstrad and race with your friend to qualify for the races against the computer, you must manage to get around the track 4 times before the counter runs out in order to qualify for the next race. Once the computer challenges you things won?t be so easy, the computer is obviously more skilled than you but does occasionaly crash into the objects around the track so that if you are lagging behind you can catch up.

This is another Codemasters game that was an instant hit back then.

Graphics

BMX Simulator is nothing new and can easily be compared to any top view racing game, the only difference is that instead of tiny cars racing around the track we have BMX bikes instead.

The graphics are good, clean and well drawn through each of the 7 levels, with good use of colour and no problems with the main sprites (hollow characters etc). Levels have been designed with dirt tracks in mind so the use of brown has obviously been implemented and we can?t expect many other colours in this type of game.

Sound

The sound is also pretty good with a very familiar title track (probably from a CPC cracktro but originally created by the Codemasters team) all the sound you would expect to be here is here so the Codemasters team are not going to loose any points on this one.

Gameplay

Gameplay is much the same as any other game of this type, you simply hit the fire button to move forward and remember to move left and right when required. It is worth noting that because BMX bikes are not motorized you shouldn?t keep your thinger on the fire button because the cyclist will just pedal faster and before long you will be mounted on the nearest railing.