Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX Hands-On

Since Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was so successful, it's really no surprise that Activision has decided to expand their pro extreme sports line with Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarding, and Kelly Slater's Pro Surfing. While it hasn't been announced that the Snowboarding or Surfing game will be based on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater engine, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX does use a modified version of the THPS engine. So did Activision simply pull out skateboards and slap in bikes, or is the game a true BMX experience?

From what I could tell, the THPS engine was simply the foundation for a solid BMX title. The game does look and play similarly to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but the tricks and dynamics of your biker give the gameplay a new flavor. Bikes are a lot more forgiving than skateboards, and Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX proves this. It's now easier than ever to combo a grind into a trick, back into a grind, then land halfway backwards and backpedal down the ramp. Additionally, the game's tracks are meant for BMX riders - some even offering an offroad dirt-track experience.

While the mode at E3 didn't feature anything more than a single level, you can bet that Activision will pump the game full of most of the same features found in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. In the current stage, Hoffman has a feel similar enough to bring back excellent memories of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater while providing a different enough experience to keep me interested.