A couple of years ago there were literally no decent BMX games on the market.  Lately though things have changed, and there are now a few to choose from for PSX, namely: Dave Mirra FreeStyle BMX, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (to be released), and THQ™'s newest release "MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX."  This new release was a big disappointment to me and I can definitely say that THQ™ is lucky they put this game out before the release of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX.  I have only had the opportunity to play the demo version of the Hoffman game (found on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 CD) and it's very solid game, even though I only played one level.  T.J Lavin's Ultimate BMX just doesn't have a good feel to it and honestly, it's not going to stand a chance in the fight for control of the BMX genre.

This game is introduced with a great biking video, as all 'extreme' sports games seem to be, and it's pretty entertaining.  The problem is that the video gets you pumped up to play the game, thinking it will be good, and then you are let down when you actually play it.  These type of games need to have a the right feel to them so that you can precisely control the chosen character, almost as if they are an extension of you.  Tony Hawk Pro skater is a good example; if you play this game everything just feels right, the controls are accurate and the physics are realistic.  Speaking of which, this game seems to borrow a lot of elements from the famous Tony Hawk series, and to me this is a good thing if done right, but it wasn't in this case.

In MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX there are a variety of actual pro BMX riders to choose from.  Among them are T.J. Lavin (duh?), Brian Foster, Chris Doyle, and Matt Beringer.  There isn't much differentiation between the riding style of these guys, but they each have different attributes pertaining to skill level of riding dirt, street, and vert.  Also there are some signature moves that can be performed within the sixteen different courses available.

The controls are easy to figure out, especially if you've played other games from the extreme sports category.  You hold down X to gain speed, and then release it to bunny hop.  Square is for bike tricks, triangle is for grinds/stalls, and circle is for body tricks (these can be changed).  You press the button of choice along with one of the eight directions on the directional pad to do a trick, quite simple.  You aren't able to change the tricks assigned to the directional arrows, as the defaults are unfortunately permanent.  Most of the tricks are impressive and they look very realistic when the riders are pulling them off.  No matter what trick you dream about landing every night, it's most likely included in this one - so you can live out your dream without breaking your neck.  The tailwhip is a personal favorite of mine and it's undoubtedly well represented in T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX.

When landing successive tricks your rider gains momentum and then eventually electricity appears around his body (hmm...remind you of Tony Hawk?).  At this point you can take advantage of the amplified tricks, which are done by tapping the directional pad twice instead of just once.  I think it's great that these tricks are so easy to pull off, definitely a very nice setup.

The problem with the controls is that they don't seem accurate, causing sloppy game play.  This may be partially due to the seemingly unrealistic physics present in the game.  Whatever it is, it doesn't allow the game to be very entertaining.  Sometimes your rider will just fall for unknown reasons and other times when you know that your rider should fall off his bike, he doesn't.  The turning is way too slow and this also contributes to the poor quality of the game play.

There are two game play modes for single-player: pro circuit and practice.  In pro circuit you complete certain tasks in order to gain sprockets, which allow you access to new tracks.  These tasks include scoring a certain number of points, knocking down certain items, or finding the MTV logo in the level.  This mode of play starts out fairly easy and then progressively gets harder because there are certain tasks that are a lot harder to complete.  You are forced to ride on street, vert, and dirt tracks, so it is best if your rider is well balanced.  If you have what it takes, ultimately you can make it to the MTV finals to test your skills.  The practice mode allows you to hone your skills for as long as you want on any track you've opened up in pro mode.

In multi-player mode, there is an assortment of different game types to play (for two players) and a few of them are T.J. Lavin originals.  There is turf war and score war, which are competitions to see who can control the most surfaces and who can get the most points, respectively.  Bomb is a pretty fun mode, which incorporates explosives into bike riding.  The bomb is passed back and forth between players each busts a better trick and the player who has the bomb when the timer goes off blows up.  They don't show the player blowing up, which is a little disappointing.  Some random gore can only help, right?  The other modes of play are: the king, tug-of-war, and quick draw - all of which add different elements to mix up the game a little bit, a great concept.

You can easily change the display from being a vertical split to a horizontal split during the game with the select button - it's too easy!  One strange thing in multi-player mode is that on your screen the other player is just a solid color, rather than having a clothing/bike texture applied to the 3D model.  Pretty weird, and definitely ugly looking, but it does make them easy to see!

One of the major problems that I noticed during game play was with the camera, which is suppose to always follow your rider.  In many cases it's as though the camera cannot keep up with your character and it this makes it hard to play the game.  All of a sudden the camera may be off to the side and it totally throws you off.  I mean how hard is it to keep the chase camera behind the player?

The replay isn't very exciting in this game, as it doesn't show many different camera angles, mostly focusing on chase mode.  You do have the ability to freeze frames and to slowly advance, which is a definite plus when you want to watch your rider fly off his bike and smash the ground.  That's what it's all about, right?

Graphically, this game isn't anything special, but it's not poorly done in any sense.  The graphics don't exhibit astounding lighting effects or any other perks that we've come to expect these days, but they aren't at all grainy or noticeably flawed.  The rider models are fairly well done, as are the bikes.  The various scenes are not the most detailed out there, but they can hold their own.  Some of the environments that you are able to ride in are original, while others are almost direct rip-offs from other games.

The sound effects in this game are pretty well done and include all the sounds you'd expect in a BMX game.  When players are whipping out tricks in the air there is a cool "whoosh" noise that is made because of air movement.  The music is decent if you're into bands such as: POD, Kottonmouth Kings, SR-71, Millencollin, and others of the same nature.  The song that plays when you are on the main menu gets very annoying very quickly and it may cause you to break things, beware.  When playing in two-player mode a single song is repeated over and over, no matter how long the session goes, and I didn't find an exception to this.  Give me a break!  At least cycle through the songs instead of torturing me with one song!

Unlike many other extreme sports games, T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX definitely doesn't make you want to go out and ride.  The game play could use a great deal of refinement, especially if it's to go up against the upcoming release of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX.  My recommendation is to skip this one and just hold out for Hoffman.

This game requires one block on your PSX memory card and is rated "T" (Teen) for mild lyrics.

Gameplay: 5.0
This game just doesn't have a good "feel" to it, which makes it hard to play.  The controls don't seem right and this makes it difficult to control the riders.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics are just average and don't present much innovation.

Sound: 7.5
Music is appropriate for riding, but it gets annoying when the same song is repeated many times.  The sound effects are solid.

Difficulty: 7.0
T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX gets progressively more difficult, as some of the sprockets are harder to earn than others.  It doesn't take very long to get the hang of this one.

Concept: 6.0
Extreme sports games are good theoretically, but how many do we need?  I noticed many borrowed concepts from other games, although there are also some original ideas incorporated.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Unique modes of game play for serious head-to-head action.  If only the overall controllability wasn't so horrible this would be worth hours of play.

Overall: 6.8