MX Superfly, (featuring Ricky Carmichael,) is one of the latest EXTREME sports titles out there that seeks to take advantage of a gamer's need to be an armchair adrenalin junkie. Let's face it, most of us like to watch in awe as we partake in ESPN2's coverage of pro dirt bike racers. These guys are insane! I can't even imagine how they begin training for what they do. When they perform the stunts that they're famous for, my head hurts at the amount of pain that must have been involved before we see the final highlight reel on TV. Enter MX Superfly... the safe way to race with the big boys of extreme racing.

MX Superfly will be familiar to anyone who has played an extreme sports game before. You have a decent mix of real music, twitchy menu screens, multiple levels and characters to choose from and a lot of tricks to master. The basic game in MX Superfly is twofold: racing and freestyle trick performing. There are two career modes to choose from which cater to one or the other style of play. The career modes, of course, follow the standard rules of extreme sports games, earn money to move on, create a character, etc etc. They have all of the options covered well enough.

Graphically speaking, the game is not bad at all. The textures, for the most part are pretty clean, the levels are diverse and the riders and bikes look wonderful. Everything runs along at a nice framerate, while not being the all magical 60 fps, still runs along perfectly with virtually no noticeable snags. My only real complaint about the graphics were on some of the bails. I don't know if it was caused by my lousy extreme gameplay skills or what, but I saw some really nonsensical animations when I wiped out. On one occasion, I lost a race merely because my rider refused to drop. I wiped out on a jump, the bike seemed to fall like it should but my rider just kind of coasted along the track for a little while too long in a bow legged stance. It was awkward, and things like that happened to me more than once which made me a little concerned.

The auditory experience of MX Superfly is a little weak for the most part in my opinion. The bike sounds sometimes seemed out of place and generally featured little range. Sometimes it just got a little grating on the nerves which caused me to adjust the sound mix. The music is the standard mix of tunes that you usually find in this type of game. The selection of songs isn't bad, and I really find the title song is catchy, but the soundtrack won't match up to SSX Tricky in my humble opinion. Other then that, the sound effects and announcers get the job done.

Obviously, the key to any good game, especially in this genre is the gameplay. MX Superfly uses a system that may not be familiar to people who are used to the usual control setup. I'll admit, just jumping into the title was a complete waste of time for me. Lucky for me, (since Blockbuster refuses to do anything even close to resembling instructions), there was a tutorial in the game that was very well done and EXTREMEly helpful.

While the game does take a little effort to learn the trick system, the racing system is pretty straightforward and very well crafted. I had no problem jumping into the races and powersliding through turns. Even the hairpin powerslide, handled via the usually ignored Z-button on the Gamecube pad, was easy to use and came in handy during the races.

The level layouts are generally pretty decent. I felt a little bored with a couple of the early levels, but the game quickly picks up the pace. I especially had fun with some of the later freestyle tracks, which offer a staggering amount of stunt opportunities, along with the prerequisite hard to get to secret areas and the like. When you get bored of the pre-made levels, you can be treated to a very detailed create-a-track mode which allows you to work out a pretty decent track for you to shred on.

MX Superfly also tries to beef up the longevity of the title with a series of mini-games, some of which need to be unlocked in order to play. Even though I applaud this type of diversity in a game, I think I'm a little spoiled with games like the Crazy Taxi and Virtual Tennis series which include a lot of really inventive, fun and interesting mini-games. While they aren't bad, some of them just tend to be a little boring while others tend to be a little frustrating. You can't complain about their inclusion at all, I wish more developers would attempt to, however, some developers just do it a little better.

Overall, even though this is a quality title on just about every level, it will remain a rental only for me. I tend to not be obsessive in owning all extreme sports games and I tend to like either the cream of the crop such as the venerable Tony Hawk series, or the outrageous fun of SSX Tricky. Dirt bike fans will definitely be pleased though, as this game seems to fill a void in that particular sub genre. Although I haven't been able to directly compare myself, it's been said that the Gamecube version of the title does outperform the PS2 version, so if you're looking for the best, and you are a multi-console owner, you may want to check them out first for which one you prefer.