Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Ramping It Up: Mad Skills Motocross

By Kieron Gillen on August 25th, 2009 at 8:09 pm.

Some motorbikes, yesterday.

Starting a day with the ex-editor of legendary videogames website/gaming-community Oskar Skog mailing us is always a fine thing. He writes, lamenting the lack of Trials HD for the PC – bastards! sez us – but thinking Mad Skills Motocross will act like a helpful methadone. While he thinks it not Trials match, he thinks it more of a combo of Excitebike, Excite Truck and Trials, including a level-editor. You can get the demo here. The full thing is just under 20 quid, which does seem a trifle pricey, but the level editor certainly is attractive. I haven’t played it – RUSHING AROUND! – but Skog has as fine an eye for an arcade game as anyone I’ve ever known. Footage follows…

Bonus marks for being called “Mad Skills Motorcross” which has had me trying to remember a crica-1999 PC Gamer office running joke where Matt Pierce kept on claiming to be General Madskillz or something similar. You probably have to had been there.

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19 Comments »

  1. Estel says:

    Level editor? A game like Trials? A ridiculous community?

    I think you want XMoto: http://xmoto.tuxfamily.org/

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  2. LionsPhil says:

    Actually, I was thinking ye olde Elastomania, sans any puzzles.

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  3. Eh? £20 surely you are making a funny joke. Hah hah, how we jest.

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  4. postmanX3 says:

    Fun? Most certainly.

    Worth 25 dollars? Most certainly not.

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  5. postmanX3 says:

    P.S. I have an Xbox and Trials HD is awesome.

    … :D

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  6. St4ud3 says:

    hmm, even Trials wasn’t 23€ o_0

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  7. BigJonno says:

    But is it as good as Kickstart 2?

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  8. Mortiphago says:

    Oh my, dear Kieron, not even the smallest mention of Elastomania in the post?

    I’m dissapoint.

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  9. triple_a says:

    Reminds me of Excite Bike. Looks pretty cool actually. I wouldn’t compare this with Trials directly. Really, it looks much more like a descendant of Excite Bike or Kickstart.

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  10. mpk says:

    I heart Oskar

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  11. Andy M says:

    It has huge issues with sudden bursts of lag on my computer (which is inexcusable given the hardware). This would not be the end of the world if the whole game was lagging, but it’s just render lag. One moment I’m doing great, then it pauses, then I’m lying mangled somewhere further down the track.

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  12. P7uen says:

    I have been following this game since before time began, being an elastomaniac, and finally got to try the beta / demo. Seriously disappointed, I found it quite boring and lacking any excitement, elasticity or mania. Did have bikes though, but so do my parents garage and I wouldn’t pay 20 quid to sit in there for a few hours either.

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  13. Dan says:

    I have to agree with the “too expensive” comments — for $10, sure, I’d buy it without thinking twice; that’s a reasonable threshold for little fun games.

    $25.95? No way.

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  14. Tetracell says:

    I’d associate this with Excitebike before Trials or Elastomania. Not worth 25 bucks, but I had a lot of fun with the demo.

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  15. Thranx says:

    $26US … I was excited until I saw the price. If it was $10 I’d pick it up in a heartbeat.

    I have no problem spending money on quality product, great designs deserve my cash, but this just doesn’t have $26 worth of gametime.

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  16. LaundroMat says:

    Oo! Parallax scrolling, how nice to see you again. I’ve been in love with you ever since Shadow of the Beast.

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  17. Ginger Yellow says:

    What lack of Trials HD on PC? Trials HD is basically a pared down Trials 2, and the latter is more HD!

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  18. postmanX3 says:

    @ Ginger Yellow:

    I know you’re jealous.

    HD Has a bunch of new levels, different bikes, skill challenges, a level editor, and it looks really, really nice. As in, much better than Trials 2.

    HA.

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  19. Ginger Yellow says:

    I do have a 360, you know.

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