Moto eXtreme Review

Developers have been getting creative with motorcycles through the last few years, offering more varied gaming designs featuring them than just straight-up racing – see examples like Trials HD and Joe Danger in competing companies' download shops. Moto eXtreme is the latest entry in this growing sub-genre, and it's a half-puzzler/half-platformer that tasks you to navigate twisting, looping obstacle courses all while riding astride two big wheels and a 150cc engine. The idea is interesting, as dealing with the physics and momentum of a vehicle makes what otherwise would have been normal platformer levels feel much more treacherous to traverse.

It's a shame it just doesn't handle a bit better. Moto eXtreme's bouncing bike is touchy to control, with collision detection that sometimes gets you totally hung up on obstacles and other times makes you pass right through floating collectibles. The camera is pushed a little too close to your rider, making it difficult to see what trap you'll have to deal with next. Your biker's also wielding a grappling hook for some reason. It's useful for grabbing items floating just out of reach, but it's hard to line it up and launch it properly too.

The game's most novel component is its Constructor Mode, which adds spontaneous platform drawing into the mix – like some weird combination of Excitebike and Kirby: Canvas Curse, you ramp your ride up into the air, use the stylus to draw a surface to land on and then keep rolling. This mode feels even harder to handle, though, and your rider's helmet will smash into lots of wood panels and rock walls while you're on the learning curve.

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