On this day, 18 long years ago in 2001, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX was released. As it’s officially an adult, it’s time we respected it as one: it’s a title that not only embodies the very best of extreme sports gaming, but one that also empowered other developers to try their hand at making their own mark on what was once an incredibly popular genre.
Released less than two years after the ground-breaking Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater – and only nine months after its seminal sequel, which offered a demo of Mat Hoffman in its options menu – this so-called “Tony on a BMX” title was the first non-skateboarding title released by Activision, a company that aimed to become the one true god in extreme sports gaming.
It was an openly competitive move; Activision was going toe-to-toe with Acclaim’s Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, a good game in its own right. However, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX turned out to be much more popular than its rival for a simple reason.
“Tony on a BMX” really did describe everything you needed to know about the game, and it’s what made it so damn playable. Instead of trying to make the game its “own thing”, Activision made a conscious decision to imprint the successful hallmarks of Pro Skater on the new two-wheeled franchise.
At the time, such standardization wasn’t expected – this was well before people learned to anticipate district or watchtower-based liberation from Ubisoft sandbox games, or microtransaction-led multiplayer from EA, which is now loathed to such a degree that EA deems it necessary to state when it doesn’t feature in one of its games.
Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX was mechanically the same game as THPS; while it was developed for the PlayStation by Shaba Games and Runecraft, it utilized the delightful Neversoft engine that everyone knew and loved, which was polished to such a degree that it resulted in one of the PS1’s most attractive games.
Activision further added to its brand-building exercise with a near-identical control system, the same challenge structure (e.g. collecting TRICK instead of SKATE), plus the inclusion of the classic Warehouse and Burnside levels from THPS as part of the game’s ten stages. If you didn’t like any of those, you could build your own, just like you could in THPS2.
It also got its own excellent soundtrack, capturing the angsty-yet-timeless qualities offered by the highest highs of THPS 1, 2 and 3. It combined the old (Fools Gold by the Stone Roses; Banned in D.C. by Bad Brains), the new (B.O.B. by Outkast; Jurassic 5’s Great Expectations) and the outright excellent (Racer X by Ten Foot Pole; Everything Turns Grey by Agent Orange), plus a few other sleeper hits.
As a result, THPS fans got a pick-up-and-play game that combined the beloved old with the exciting new. What’s more, it also excelled in connecting a captive audience with a much more attainable real-life activity.
Skateboarding’s popularity exploded at the turn of the millennium, even taking root here in the UK. It became one of the most popular hobbies going – THPS made lazy gamers like me buy a board and attempt the actions of Hawk, Burnquist, Rowley and co. However, as hard as we tried, most of us were terrible at it. I couldn’t even ollie, never mind pull off a Kickflip McTwist.
BMXing, however? Getting started was literally as easy as riding a bike. Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX portrayed a more realistic outdoor pursuit, and the gap between doing tricks in game and in real life was more realistic than that of Pro Skater. True, I never did do that no-handed double backflip (I could have if I wanted), but bunny hopping, grinding and air tricks were a little more feasible.
Crucially, though, the game’s success widened the overall audience base for extreme sports videogames. As a result, Activision ironically became the victim of its own success. The short-lived, two-game Mat Hoffman series was its only major hit in the genre aside from the THPS franchise, as the market became saturated by like-minded competitors that wanted a piece of the action.
Perhaps intimidated by Activision’s near-perfect Pro Skater and Pro BMX licenses, rival developers focused instead on snowboarding. EA’s fabulous SSX series was the pinnacle of the era’s efforts, though props should also go to Amped, Dark Summit, 1080 Avalanche and the ongoing Cool Boarders series.
That’s not to say that Activision didn’t try to maintain its grasp on the market. It legitimately conquered the uncontested sport of surfing with the fun Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer, but it was as linear as you’d expect from a game that relied on variations of wave formations. Needless to say, this experiment never went past one game.
As for its own take on snowboarding, Activision didn’t seem to try at all. Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder was a dull, basic game that failed to comfortably adopt the THPS structure, not least because it was hard to explore and learn levels when you were hurtling down them in one, unstoppable direction. Collection tasks were luck, not skill; pulling tricks was as enjoyable as pulling teeth.
Still, it’s just as well that Activision gave it a go. After this resounding critical failure, it quickly learned from the mistake and canned the sequel. With the money it made from THPS and Pro BMX, it invested it into the next big thing.
By the time 2003 arrived, Activision released Tony Hawk’s Underground – its last solid THPS game – alongside Call of Duty, the first in a new breed of next-gen first-person shooters, creating the next big craze. Treyarch, which was acquired by Activision in 2001 and was initially attached to the Shaun Palmer sequel, went on to develop the wildly successful Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, eventually creating the Black Ops franchise.
Because of games like these, and the power of its fellow Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX is regularly forgotten. However, it was a game that proved the formula worked, helping countless others concoct their own formulas. No other BMX series has come close since.
