Introduction: Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 swaps the skateboard for a BMX and brings us a fun GBA title that will have bike fans perfecting their jumps, flips and grinds for quite a while.

GamePlay: You start Dave Mirra with only one of twelve levels open for play - you need to complete specific tasks in the 'Pro Quest' mode in order to unlock the additional tracks. These tasks range from collecting letters to spell 'M-I-R- R-A', to racking up an ever increasing points target by performing tricks. Each stunt gives you some experience points which can then be spent on improving different areas of your selected bikers skill set - such as speed, balance, air etc.

Two other modes are available - Freeride where you can explore the park with no time limits, allowing you to scope out the best routes for tricks and also for collecting the spray cans, stars and letters for the Proquest. Session seems to be a little pointless. You are given the usual 2-minute time limit (as for Proquest) but there are no targets in this mode and it just seems to be about doing trick after trick to get a high score. You may as well be doing the proquest where at least you will end up rewarded with experience points & unlocking of new tracks. There is also a 2-player option - which is not really multiplayer since you have to take turns with the same GBA. But at least this means you don't need 2 GBA's & two copies of the game.

Control: You can pull off an outstanding number of tricks using the four buttons and the directional pad on the GBA; from general jumping with A and grinding with B to back flips & spins using jump plus the shoulder button and the D-Pad. Mastering all these will take a long, long time - though it's relatively easy to build a substantial points total just by repeating a trick over & over again. During grinds and some other moves you may have to use the D-Pad to keep your balance (depending on how fast & straight you came into the move). A meter will appear and your goal is to keep it in the green 'safe' zone by using left & right. Stray into the red & the rider will take a tumble - losing you any points you built up during the trick. The longer the trick is held, the harder it gets to keep your balance (realistically enough) and so it's a trade off between trying to keep the trick going and keeping your points safe. Once in motion, your rider will carry on moving in one direction with the A button used to speed up, and the direction bad being nudged to change direction. It's actually quite amusing to watch the rider poodle around the park with no intervention from you - if he hits a wall he just bounces off at the appropriate angle and keeps going. I did find lining myself up for a trick a problem sometimes, especially when trying to collection items; though this may just be down to my lack of skill.

Graphics: Dave Mirra uses an isometric viewpoint of the parks to give a sense of depth, and this works pretty well on the whole. You quickly get used to the requirements this places on you for moving around. Characters are realistically portrayed and peddle around nicely, and the stages are chock full of ramps, rails and other scenery for your tricking delight.

Sound & Music: The sound is of a surprising quality for a handheld - with eleven tracks that generally match the feel of the game; although some sound better than others, probably due to the limitations of the GBA itself. The music can get a little repetitive, but as your limited to 2 minutes in Proquest this isn't really an issue. Other samples - grinds, bails and crashes are adequately done; with my favourite being the exclamation the rider gives as he hits the ground head-first after a trick gone wrong.

Final Comments: There is a risk of the game becoming a little repetitive - although the gradual unlocking of courses and improvements to your players goes a long way to addressing that. Later courses require higher & higher points totals to proceed and so you're going to have to master a lot of the tricks and be able to string them together to succeed. On the whole though, Dave Mirra is a fun-packed game and a recommended purchase.

Pro: Fluid and realistic game-play, lots of tricks to master and decent sound.
Con: Awkward Isometric viewpoint. Short Challenges make for endless and irritating Replays.
Final Score: 7.0

Reviewed by: Douglas Andrews