Giveaway of the Day - Super Motocross Deluxe

Super Motocross Deluxe, (38Mb and 131Mb when installed) is another game developed by Hand Made Games, the game developer who appears to have no web site. The game also looks remarkably like the version that you can get via Gametop 24/7.

It’s been updated in a similar way to the Monster Truck giveaway was from the other week; that is motion blur and depth of field have been added to give a more visual appeal to the game (though I preferred the sharper backgrounds of the original). We were given the original ‘non’ deluxe version of Super Motocross previously back in October last year. I’ve written a very basic review of today’s updated game, so if you want more details please check my original review and other community members comments from last years (Oct 09) giveaway HERE. The only thing that appears to be different is the slight graphic adjustments and the addition of a reset button. Unfortunately every time I took a screen capture it crashed the game, and in one case it froze my computer, so I’ve only taken a few images. The ones that the giveaway team have provided, plus the ones I posted over in the forums should be adequate enought to give you an idea as to what the game looks like. As for any problems running the game; please check back to the previous giveaway via the link I’ve provided above before posting any problems you are having because you may find the answer there

The following is the developer’s introduction to the game:

You are a motocross bike driver. Finish all the trials in the jungle! Be fast to win the trophies. Win a bronze trophy at least to unlock next level. Collect certain trophy sets to unlock new bikes.

Updated version of “Super Motocross” game.

• Advanced visual effects – Motion Blur and Depth of View added.

• Player statistics in “select level” and “select bike” menus.

• “Ghost player” with best results added.

Reference accessed HERE on the 16th Jan 2010

I downloaded the Gametop version to check on my suspicions as to whether this was just a cosmetic work over of the previous games we’ve had from this developer and found that it was. Also the game giveaway is basically the same as the always free Gametop game which you can download HERE. The advantage of the Gametop version is that it has a shortcut installed to both the desktop and the Start/Program menu and also includes an uninstaller. The disadvantage is that everytime you close the Gametop version down it opens your browser to Gametops home page (not necessarily a bad thing becuse you can then check to see if they have added any new games to their ever growing catalogue.

You’ll find the games menu system exactly the same as Monster Truck Deluxe, with a range of levels to play, but these have to be unlocked and you also have a few different trials bikes to choose from, which are also locked.

When starting a new game you have to set up your player’s profile. There are five slots. Once this is done you progress to the level selection page of which there are 15 levels. To progress from one level to the next you have to earn at least a bronze cup from each race. There are bronze, silver and gold cups to win, based on the time you complete each stage. You can replay any unlocked levels whenever you wish. There are four motocross bikes to choose from; the GrinderEZ which is unlocked and three more that are locked called Masterbike 2000, Magnum Striker and Titanium Pro respectively.

The game reminds me a little of Trials 2: Second Edition
, though Trials 2 has far more sophisticated graphics, more levels; that are much,’ much’ harder and also has a worlwide online scoring system. This game appears to have no high scores table, though there are player statistics to be found in the menus. Races are based on times, but if you don’t attain at least a bronze time the game is null and void, that is, there is no record of your game play and you have to restart the level until you’ve attained a bronze to be able to unlock the next level. . Even then the only evidence you’ve attained anything is through the games save system once you’ve attained a medal, which is automatic.

The odd looking lines are probably something to do with my screen capture device and the frame rate at which the image was taken

It may be possible to ‘hack’ into the games configuration file and be able to unlock all of the levels and bikes (for those who just want to be able to play any level right from the outset, or for those who find it hard to attain even a bronze cup). The controls are straightforward, but that doesn’t mean to say the game is easy. Some will probably find the controls hard to use, but generally I think you’ll find it easy to control the bikes, especially with a little practice,; however, I’ll leave that up to the individual to find out.

After failing to beat the bronze time the first full race I completed, I then managed to whiz through three levels, even attaining a silver medal on my sixth try. Unfortunately wanting to post this short review as early as possible stopped me from exploring the game further. I’m not sure how you unlock a new bike as I didn’t have time to explore the game further but I suspect you have to unlock a couple of races before the next bike is unlocked.

Controls:

• ROLL LEFT – LEFT ARROW
• ROLL RIGHT – RIGHT ARROW
• MOVE FORWARD – UP ARROW
• MOVE BACKWARD – DOWN ARROW
• USE NITRO – SPACE
• PAUSE/RETRY/EXIT – ESC

Conclusion:

The handling of the bike was virtually the same as the Monster Truck nitro game that we got back in July. The only difference was the graphics. I liked the overall look of the game (apart from the odd stripes that appeared occasionally, which you can see in many of the screenshots I took), but I already have a really good trials bike emulator called Trials 2: Second Edition that is vastly superior to this game. I’ll be keeping it though for some light relief as it’s a much easier game than Trials 2, which I find almost impossible to beat. I was able to progress through 3 levels at gold standard with no second retries even though I was relatively slow. You just have to make sure you use the left and right arrows to steady yourself during the jumps (which helps to stop you over balancing), and to land correctly withut coming to a stop, which takes away valuable seconds.

Overall, if you don’t have any other games of this type, it’s okay for free and should give you some measure of enjoyment, but I think purists to this genre will find this too easy, the graphics a little to flung together and the game far too short. At the very most there’s an hours worth of game play and that’s if you need to repeat each level at least once or twice.

With many arcade games available for much less than the asking price I think it’s over priced at $9.95 and would be better sold at $4.50 at the most (I got Trials 2 – Second Edition together with Multiwinia, Eets, Gravitron 2 and I-Fluid for around the same price as today’s game giveaway (an occassional repeat deal on Steam). I do like this sort of game so am rather generous with my scoring giving this a 5.5 out of 10 for the physics aspect of the game.

I’ve posted this review with some changes over in the forums HERE . You can see some of the screenshots I took from the original game. The game still looks almost the same apart from the blurred depth of field effects.

Other useful information:

Music:

There are four MP3 tracks that you can replace if you don’t like the menu and in game music. I found it a very repetitive loop so just turned the volume down via the options menu. All you need to do is go to C:\Games\Super Motocross Deluxe\\Data\Music; (the path may be slightly different, so I’d keep an eye on where you install the game to). To change the music just select the four MP3’s you want to use from your collection and rename the four files you use to Level1, level2, level3 (no spaces) and menu, though from what someone said a couple of weeks ago, you may not even need to do that.

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Other Games:

You can get a reasonable quad bike racing game called ATV Quadro Racing HERE, for free from Gametop.

Just a note of caution about Gametop. The site now has a yellow rating with Site Advisor. Some of their games do try to install toolbars and hijack your browsers home page, but both can be avoided by making sure the boxes are unchecked during installation. The site also seems to have ramped up their pop ups, so make sure your pop up blocker is active if you want to avoid those annoying pop ups. Once the games are installed you will get the sites home page opening up when you shut the games down, but there is no in game advertising and effectively you’re getting free commercial arcade games.

Another free bike racing game called Moto Racing (which I think is better than the one being given away for free today), can be downloaded from HERE, though it doesn’t have the physics emulation that Super Motocross has. Monster Truck Trials the previous giveaway that is similar to today’s game giveaway, is also available for free HERE, though it’s had a name change to Monster Truck Challenge.

Here’s a couple more online trials bike games that can be played full screen called Bike Master, which you can find HERE and Trial bike Pro which you can get HERE. There’s also some newer additions to Gametops books such as Neptunes Buggy Online and Sky Track (which is similar to Star Racing).

There are more racing games available from Gametop and FreeGamePick and also some freeware and abandonware racing games available via the free games synopsis in the giveaway forums. you’ll find a sticky on the front page of the forums that’ll take you to the lists of games. Trackmania is probably the best of the freeware games, but others such as the online game Darkwind and the abandonware game Death Rally (which was recently updated so that it will now play on windows).

If you don’t mind paying for your games, you can get a couple of excellent 3D Motocross games (that are rather old, but still look good and play well) called Motocross Mania and Motocross Madness 2 that allow you to move around a vast open world, and have several different modes of play. You can pick up either of the games below for less than todays giveaway if you look for them on the net. I’ve seen Motocross Madness 2 (the better of the two games) for less than $5 on Play.com, though you may have to buy a second hand one.

“The program is available for $9.99, but it will be free for our visitors as a time-limited offer”

What are you saying? MOtocross Deluxe is a freeware game!

……………………..Moderator comment…………………..

No not freeware, but for a day the developer is allowing the giveaway team to giveaway as many licences as there are community members willing to download this game.

Though it seems the developer has also got an agreement with the owners of the Gametop site as it’s permanently free from Gametop. However that still doesn’t make it freeware. Gametop will be paying the developer money to host the game on their site,