As much as I adore the classic Excitebike, and I know many others do as well, I find it unusual that aside from a 64-bit incarnation that took it in a bit of a different direction, there haven’t been many games like it made over the years. Mixing together a simple blend of pretty intuitive controls, some technique, and a fair degree of challenge, it was a satisfying game, and I’ve even found it to be quite playable today, which doesn’t always happen. While Mad Skills BMX 2 isn’t quite the same animal, I still see some of that inspiration in the overall simplicity of its design, which I appreciate.

The goal here is simple, to go head to head with either a CPU or human opponent, braving dirt tracks with a variety of obstacles, showing some technique, and trying to come out as the winner. There aren’t a load of controls to master, tricks to distract you, or crazy surprises of any kind… just a slow progression of tougher opponents, sections of track you’ll need to master, and assorted stats to boost as well as gear to accumulate to perform and look better.

In terms of contemporaries on the system there aren’t too many that are precisely like it, so there’s some degree of novelty there. This isn’t as trick-centric as the likes of Olli Olli, or more traditionally racing-oriented in some way. You’ll be working on your timing for hitting jumps properly, descending in order to maximize your speed down hills, showing a little technique to get through tricky sections, and generally just trying to either maximize or maintain your momentum since one mistake could make everything fall apart as you try to simply get started once more.

For people with a taste for simplicity, this might have some appeal, and perhaps a friend to play against could sweeten the deal a bit. I suppose if you’re really thirsting for a simpler action-oriented take on racing you could also have a kick with it, but for anyone else the appeal is likely a bit more narrow. This is by no means a terrible or even a bad game, it just lacks the ambition and variety to perhaps demand a little more attention… but for the right crowd it should still satisfy.