SX Superstar Hands-On

Reminiscent of Acclaim's previous motocross title, Jeremy McGrath Supercross, SX Superstar is a racing game on dirt bikes that features a trick system and some wide-open courses. Superstar is slated for release in June, so it's almost done, and Acclaim was showing off a near-finished build at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week. So of course we decided to spend some quality time with it.

The racing in SX Superstar has a decent feel to it. Plenty of powersliding around turns kept us engaged with the experience, at least for the relatively short time we had to spare in between checking out the rest of Acclaim's lineup. You need to cautiously navigate corners, since your bike can lose its grip on the dirt if you turn too sharply. There are a couple of trick buttons that let you pull off some fancy moves in midair, and another button lets you preload your suspension to launch yourself higher into the air coming off a ramp. The game looks pretty good, at least on the Xbox, which was the only version Acclaim was showing.

SX Superstar seems like a pretty solid bike racing game, though admittedly it didn't seem to be remarkable in any way. Fans of motocross should stay tuned, as we'll have a final build of the game in hand soon and a full review not long thereafter. SX Superstar is slated to ship in late June for the Xbox, GameCube, and PS2.