Freekstyle was one of the many motocross games I played during the Playstation 2 era and it was without a single shadow of doubt, the most fun I've ever had in a freestyle motocross racing game.
The intro is more than enough to get you sold on it
Gameplay:
Freekstyle is not some simple FMX event where you take some riders and their bikes and jump them off a few safe ramps with safely built landing ramps, Freekstyle is a epic freestyle motocross game where you jump your 2 wheeled machine as high as it's horsepower can launch it and pull off all kinds of impossible tricks that would kill the riders in real life if they bailed them on unbelievably amazing race tracks that would make Travas Pastrana piss his pants.
Freekstyle gives the player the options to choose to go on a Circuit mode where you race against other riders to unlock more riders, their personal outfits, their personal MX bikes and more tracks to race on. A simple race mode where you just race A.I riders just for the hell of it. A Freestyle mode where you pull as many tricks as you can in the time limit to unlock more Freestyle tracks as well as more riders, bikes and outfits. A Free ride mode that lets you ride freely on the race tracks with no limits, no rules and unlimted laps, just go freaking crazy on your motorcycle and pull off
some sick tricks, it's also useful for practice. Finally a Split Screen Multiplayer mode if you wanna race against a friend.The gameplay in Freekstyle is very very easy to get used to, you just have to win the race by beating the other riders, but racing fast and winning is not enough, there's no taking it easy in Freekstyle, you have to push it all the way to the max, when you hit the jumps(they are HUGE jumps) in Freekstyle you have to pull off some super sick tricks and your bikes turbo boost meter will gain fuel allowing you to boost your bike way faster, getting bigger jumps, letting you pull more awesome tricks and the more awesome tricks you do, the faster your Freekout meter will fill up and once your Freekout meter is full, hit the biggest jump as hard as you can and pull your rider's signature "SUPER SICK TRICK" to ignite the Freekout Boost which launches your bike into a nearly uncontrollable, sound barrier breaking speed that will be on a timer, you can extend the timer and keep the Freekout Boost alive by pulling sick tricks on every jump you hit, if you let the timer run out, the Freekout Boost will stop, you will return to normal speed and the Freekout meter will be depleted, needing to repeat the cycle in order to trigger the Freakout Boost again.
The Tricks that can be pulled in the game are just amazing and so addictive to keep pulling, you'll never get tried of the never before seen or ever thought about tricks in this game.
Graphics:
Graphics are good for a Playstation 2 motocross game that is meant to be unrealistic, the tracks look very good and well designed, the custom bikes are really well done and really resemble their respective riders, the riders are well designed as well, being modeled after many real life riders like Brian Deegan and Mad Mike Jones. Overall the game just looks good.
Sound:
The game has a pretty decent soundtrack, though in my opinion, the song in the intro, Slip Away by Dry Cell is the best song in the game, the bikes sound great, the voice acting is pretty good and all the other sound effects do the game a lot of good.
Verdict:
I have played this game countless times and I still play it to this day, the game is just so much fun and it's hard to get tired playing it, it's a shame that you can only have a unlimited time limit on the racing tracks and not the freestyle maps, but Freekstyle is a damn great FMX game that is very adictive, a lot of the PS2 games had that spark but not many Motocross games did. Freekstyle is, was and probably always will be the best Freestyle Motocross game I have ever played.
My score:
9.75/10
If you did not experience the PS2 era, or you did and missed this game, you have to go back, find it and play it, you will not be disappointed.
Thanks for reading and I hope you liked my review of the best FMX game ever made :)
-Scott
