Edgar Torrenteras' Extreme Biker

5.4

Format PC

Developer Unknown

Publisher Sierra

Genre Racing / Driving

You might not have heard of Mr Edgar Torrenteras, but you can't avoid Steve Hill

For all the difference it makes, they might as well have called it Terry Berry's Extreme Biker. Torrenteras may be a big noise in a small part of Barcelona, but in any well-ordered society, having the name of an up-and-coming Spanish stunt rider on the box wouldn't help this game sell another copy. If Michael Owen's World League Soccer can't even trouble the charts, what hope is there for the boy Edgar? However, the success of Extreme Biker should depend solely on the quality of the game. It is therefore with regret that we have to report that the licence is the best thing it has going for it.

EXTREME MADNESS

Yep, it's a stinker. And if that weren't enough, it's a stinker in a genre dominated by one title that is head and shoulders above the rest. We speak of course of the majestic Motocross Madness, a game that was largely responsible for bringing the delights of the noble art of motocross to the great unwashed. In less enlightened times, motocross was called scrambling and involved tearing round a farmer's field while being caked in agricultural produce. Nowadays it falls firmly under the banner of Extreme Sports, and is the pastime of bleach-haired pot smokers, along with BMX, snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing. Extreme Biker wears these influences firmly on its day-glo sleeve, from the obligatory Pepsi Max endorsement to the numerous clips of Edgar in action.

Watching a man fly through the air on a motorbike is undeniably an impressive sight. Attempting to replicate it yourself on a monitor is an altogether different bag, and Extreme Biker singularly fails to capture any of the thrill of the sport. Whereas Motocross Madness feels like riding a motocross bike (and yes, I have), Extreme Biker feels like playing a game, and a mediocre one at that. The bike never really feels like it's in contact with the ground, the overall impression not helped by the fact that it casts no shadow.

EDINHO TORI AMOS

Track design is also a major bugbear, with an over-gimmicky approach proving tiresome. Racing through volcanoes and across the rooftops of Paris might make for a good press release, but in reality it is less fun than you can imagine, proving wholly disorientating and near-impossible to remain on the track. The stadium-based Supercross sections are mildly acceptable, but marred by the fact that if you inadvertently leave the track, you are left to find your way back with only the aid of a vague arrow. As for the stunts, the simple ones are pulled off via a single button press, with more complicated efforts executed by keeping a puck between two markers. Crashes are commonplace and seem to flout the laws of not only physics but biology, with limbs bent backwards at macabre angles.

Not a resounding success, then. If you're interested in this type of game you should seek out Motocross Madness, and if you already own that, you don't need this.