Motocross, a true extreme sport for extreme people, has been seen through many consoles since the beginnings of video games. The first extremely popular of these was Exitebike for the Nintendo Entertainment System. From there, the Motocross game genre has had its ups and downs, and Yamaha Supercross is definitely a disappointing game that falls short of its predecessors.

Yamaha Supercross is a Motocross racing game, and has two main modes that you can play in. Those modes are Arcade and Tournament. Arcade is a “play what you want” mode. You will choose what course you want, what bike you want, and you can even choose what number you’d like to be. On the other side, Tournament will take you through six courses in which you will race for points, very much like Mario Kart. The competitor with the most points at the end of the six races wins. Winning both modes will unlock courses, bikes...oh, and you’ll get trophies for your troubles. There is nothing like a little gold.

Motocross is a sport of skill and precision. In other words, you have to work really hard not to wreck your bike into a million pieces. It’s not easy, but you can do it. To play this game well, you need to have an understanding of the controls. The controls aren’t what I would have liked, but they worked.  There is no motion control in this game, and this was disappointing to me. When thinking about a motocross game for Wii, it should have motion controls. Yamaha Supercross left this out, and it hurt the overall gameplay. The gameplay consisted of racing around with nine other motocrossers on dirt tracks.  It was really easy to wreck, and almost too easy to jump off the track. These instances of collisions and jumping off the track were too common and could have been improved on.

Those weren’t the only aspects of the game that left me baffled, however. There was also the less than average graphics and music. The graphics in this game might be some of the most average and non-appealing graphics that have been on the Wii, and the music is another story all together. This game barely has a soundtrack. A few songs make the soundtrack, and those songs play when you are browsing the main menu and loading your race.  Sound effects pretty much run Yamaha Supercross’ soundtrack. To its credit, the sounds of the motocross bikes were good. The sound of a bike revving up is enough to get you pumped up to beat anyone in a race, and that’s what its all about.

The Motocross genre has seen some great games, but Yamaha Supercross just isn’t one of them. Since Motocross games have been around since the beginning, this game definitely has some areas where it could improve on especially when looking at games of the past. Yamaha Supercross didn’t have much going for it, but it is a good value at $20 at most retailers. Honestly, this is the only thing I could find that really stood out to me about the game. With less than par graphics, lack of motion control, and average gameplay, it just didn’t stand out to me as a good Motorcross game or even a good Wii game.  

Gameplay: 6
Motocross racing games are fun if you do it right. The lack of a good selection of different courses and motion controls made the game get boring quickly.

Graphics: 5
The graphics were just plain average. Nothing at all stood out, and reminded me of last generation graphics.

Sound: 6
The dirt bikes sounded great, but the soundtrack didn’t. Having only a few songs on the game made this score fall.

Difficulty: Easy

Concept: 4
There was nothing here that hasn’t already been done in the past. This is a Nintendo Wii game, and no motion controls again harkened a low score for concept.

Multiplayer: 5
There is no online multiplayer in this game, but you can play your friends.  Being a Nintendo Wii game and thinking about the current state of online gaming, Yamaha Supercross would have benefited from online play.

Overall: 5
Although Yamaha Supercross didn’t have much going for it, it is a good value, but is just an average Wii game for $20.