March 05, 2002 - Acclaim is the first out of the gate to deliver a motocross title on GameCube, continuing its ongoing franchise with the release of Jeremy McGrath Supercross World. It kind of fits, as Acclaim was the first company to get an MX game out there by releasing the first Jeremy McGrath on the PlayStation in '98. Nintendo, as you may know, followed suit shortly after with the resurrection of its Excitebike series on the Nintendo 64. Excitebike 64 received widespread approval thanks to its tight and tweaked control, sweet physics, and inclusion of countless extra modes such as the original 2D NES Excitebike. Sadly, Jeremy McGrath Supercross World has very little of this polish. Acclaim has failed to build one good Jeremy McGrath upon another and the port of the PlayStation 2 version of Supercross World isn't breaking the trend.

Features

• First dirtbike title for GameCube
• 25 huge tracks encompassing eight outdoor tracks, five free-ride Baja environments, four freestyle stunt courses and eight indoor tracks
• Customizable rider attributes, including jumping, cornering, stability and stunt
• Get rewards to unlocks new environments, bikes, and riders
• Innovative Stunt Advantage where successful stunts allow for better rider performance
• Flexible Stunt System allows for holding stunts, landing stunts and stringing stunts together in succession for extra points;
• Over two dozen different stunts that can be performed with each rider having his own stunt package;
• Various mini-challenges such as collecting items or catching big air help extend replay value of each race
• Two-player mode lets you race against a friend

Gameplay
Supercross World is a fairly straightforward package. It features single player quick races -- essentially an arcade mode -- so you can get right into racing with a biker whose stats are pumped up. You can choose from a number of the tracks and just try to enjoy MX racing. Of course, those looking for a bit more depth can start a career. In this mode, you choose any of the available licensed bikers (there is no create-a-player mode) who are all evenly rated. That is because their abilities including stability, cornering, jumping, and stunts are all 1 and you have to take them through a set of Baja, Indoor, Outdoor, and Freestyle competitions to earn more ability points. As you garner points you can manually add them to the abilities you see worthy of improvement. Additionally, there are a number of bikes that are rated according to top speed, traction, suspension, and powerband (acceleration). They are definitely weighted slightly different, but it doesn't come across in terms of control.

This is absolutely one of Supercross World's biggest issues. The control is just very wonky and isn't convincing of how these bikes would behave in real-life at all. Certainly it's not meant to be a perfect simulation, but that's no excuse. Arcade or simulation, the controls have serious issues. You accelerate with the A-button and can make sharp turns by skidding with the R-trigger. To jump and catch your air you must pre-load by holding down the L-trigger and release it at the tip of the jumps. Catching air is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of an MX racer. This is where all the depth comes in because you're pulling off tricks to get a boost in performance and, more importantly, timing and landing to maximize speed. In Supercross World this isn't conveyed well. You can catch air all right, but it's very difficult to really get a feel for height, and even more complicated to time landings. In particular, this steals a lot of the fun away.

Further adding to the problems is that the track design is rather uninspired. There are some huge, truly awesome jumps but the overall presentation is a bit manic. Sometimes you're downright bored with the track setup (which is admittedly a result of the control) and occasionally you are amused with the bigger jumps. As well, the artificial intelligence of the opponent bikers is very sterile. They act like mindless drones, all following one after the other adding very little to the experience. If you're hoping that the freestyle control mechanics and stunt system adds some more depth to this arguably thin experience, think again. It, too, is a flat. Finally, to round out the problems, there are some serious glitches. One of the most annoying is attempting to take a shortcut only to totally bail for no reason upon trying to race up the ramp. It's dependent on your speed, we've found, as you have to go quite slow to successfully execute it.

Graphics
Jeremy McGrath Supercross World looked bad on the PlayStation 2. Naturally the bar is raised on GameCube and the team has done little to nothing to improve visuals. It looks bland, sporting a number of flawed visual touches; boring texture work (with seaming), an unaccommodating landscape engine with plenty of draw-in and pop-up, and a sketchy framerate to boot. Additionally, the animations are stiff and totally unconvincing. Everyone animates a bit like a robot and you'll often see the rider's polygon model "convulsing" on the ground after a crash.

Sound
If there's one thing Acclaim has been doing really well lately with every one of its extreme sports titles, then it's the music selection. Supercross World comes with tunes from Mudhoney, Millencolin, Sevendust, Fenix TX and more. It suits the style of the game well and isn't totally predictable either. Sound effects on the other hand are mediocre. Environmental sound effects are used sparingly, and the sounds tied directly to your bike and objects it interacts with are dull.

created by da biszy