MX Nitro Review

"Dirty Hard"

Campaign

MX Nitro is a bike racing game that's similar to design and concept of the Trials series. Providing a fixed side angle with slight changes depending on location, you drive along courses against other racers with the goal place the best you can. The general concept is great and works well, but the game has some serious difficulty to it for no reason. I had severe issues even beating the basic tutorial which is beyond frustrating and even as you progress it doesn't get any easier. The game has this difficulty due to the extreme fixation on pulling off a constant array of tricks and while you can be doing great moves, the AI still keeps it close. This adds some tension, but definitely keeps this from being accessible to all players. That aside there's a solid amount of content here with a full campaign filled with levels to play in locations all across the world. There are also a number of modes to play as well with some boss fights thrown in for an extra challenge. I didn't particularly like how locked in things were as you had to complete the next task for most of the experience without any freedom to enjoy the full game. They also lock multiplayer to completing certain levels so that area will most certainly be a dead space or extremely hard to find players. The game also carries a gear pack design though these were earned by completing levels and seemed locked based on progression which was fine. This leads into a large selection of customization which was appreciated and they definitely have that altogether well.

Gameplay

The game takes a realistic approach to gameplay which works well and I loved the details there. It looked fantastic offering many unique locations, terrains and tracks to race across. This was somewhat brought down by occasional screen tears and frustrating difficulty. Tricks are heavily pushed as they gain nitro to make you move quicker and they actually do provide some sick moves to pull off with a vast amount of tricks available. This added to the visuals as the riders would pull off some sick moves in grand looking locations. The audio was hit or miss as I found some voice overs to be drab while others did improve scenes.

The Conclusion

MX Nitro provides a great selection of content in what's a solid experience though it's hard to enjoy when you're getting beyond frustrated just doing the tutorial or first few levels. You will pick it up getting used to things, but even then every single race is too close. The multiplayer won't do well as it's locked based on progression and that will split up the player base. I like the graphics and general gameplay was they looked great with solid function. It's a decent bike racing game that's held back by pushing a linear focus while also having ridiculous AI to drive against making it a not so enjoyable time.

MX Nitro Review on Xbox One
Review Code Provided by Brown Betty

Rating Overall: 6.4