Mad Skills BMX Review

Mad Skills BMX is a game I could really enjoy playing. I like the idea of it and I like the controls, but a few really bad decisions about the game play make it an infuriating experience.

Mad Skills BMX is a side scroller, going left to right over hills and jumps with the ability to do stunts and tricks. The controls are super intuitive. Hold your finger on the left side of the screen (you can switch it to right in the options), and swiped on the right going up, down, left or right make your cyclist jump, wheelie, lean or flip.

I would love a game where you try to do mad tricks or race for the best time. Unfortunately, Mad Skills BMX is so stacked against you, it’s like a prank.

One thing that always annoyed me even back in the NES days is that the other racer instantly gets so far ahead of you that you spend the whole race catching up. That’s not a challenging competition at all. You don’t get to actually use strategy or skill to overcome the competition, you just have to run a perfect lap to maybe catch up before the finish line.

Plus, the opponent always runs a perfect race, so if you make one mistake, you’re out. You might as well restart. The controls are easy, but the game is already designed to hold you back, so it doesn’t really matter how well you master them. Plus, some races are so short you don’t even have time to do anything. I guess if you get an early lead it’s easier to maintain, but either way it’s a chore.

You can pick from different bikes, or purchase some for even more upgrades. It seems to make a small difference on some courses, but seriously, not worth it.

I got a lot of bugs in mine too. Sometimes if you actually win a race, the game doesn’t recognize the win so you still can’t clear the board. You have to win the race again and then maybe it’ll take. But some are so hard you can’t even win it again. I also had the game freeze in the pause menu. I had to totally restart to even get back into the game. At the time of publication, there had been no updates to address these issues.

The graphics are really good. It looks like full sized racers even on a little iPhone screen, and the tracks are colorful with great backgrounds. The music is Xgames rock, real songs, though no A-list artists that I’d recognize. The music does get old after a few races so I turned it off.

Seriously, they need to come up with a patch that makes the races more fair. Unless it’s all a big bait and switch to make you pay for the expensive bike upgrades.

App Store Link: Mad Skills BMX for iPhone & iPad | By Turborilla | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0.0 | 41.5 MB | Rating 9+