BMX Jam Review

BMX Jam is quite reminiscent of the Trials series of games with its focus on providing outlandish physics and even more outlandish jumps and tricks that require performing. It's great fun, too, although at times players might find themselves infuriated by the challenge offered in later stages.

Spanning four cities including San Francisco, Beijing, Sydney and Rio, the idea is the same throughout - get to the end of the course in a suitably short time. There's no reliance on time trials here so it is possible to take many minutes to complete a track but the fun lies in being speedy. A series of stars provide the means in which to unlock new cities and also a path highlighting the optimum route to take. It's all quite a straight forward route, however.

The challenge comes in the form of keeping the bike upright, avoiding obstacles such as spikes and fire, while also performing tricks. The bike reacts to tilts of the iOS device while a tap performs a jump with an additional tap performing a trick, correlating to the way the bike is tilted. It's simply done but offers a fair amount of flexibility in what occurs. Tricks are particularly useful during occasions where the rider races through fire, thus catching alight. Tricks put the flames out, stopping one's bike from crumbling to ash.

BMX Jam exudes that one more go mentality in abundance. It's all too easy to want to complete one level before putting it down. Some levels are quite taxing with jumps aplenty requiring fast reactions and the right level of tilt. It never feels unduly difficult though, just satisfying to progress through. Crucially, it's fun to master a level, performing trick after trick while collecting up all the stars. Repeated sessions are encouraged through the different paths required to collect all the stars but it never feels like a chore.

BMX Jam is a fine example of how to produce an exciting arcade bike racing game that's easy to pick up and play, but challenging to master.