Hardcore Dirt Bike Review

By , on September 20, 2010


Hardcore Dirt Bike
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Arcade-style racing action.
  • Plenty of bikes and tracks to unlock.

CONS

  • Touchy 'reset' boundaries.
  • Physics still feel weightless.

VERDICT

Hardcore Dirt Bike is a decent racing title that'll fill some spare time, but small glitches and basic physics make it far from a competent one.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

Hardcore Dirt Bike by XLab Technologies is, as you might have already guessed at this point, a dirt bike racing game from the creators of MonsterTruck Rally.

Much like the first game you can control your bike by steering your iDevice left and right while accelerating and braking by touching the right and left hand sides respectively. Should you gain enough air you can also tap a small button on the left side to trigger a 'trick', earning additional credits on top of those you get by completing races. However, despite being able to adjust the steering sensitivity your bike never really feels in control, opting to either fly out of bounds or perform a perfunctory 180 degree turn on a mere whim.

Things aren't all doom and gloom though as the visuals have been given a further polishing, adding more detail to the environments and the twisting, hilly tracks are a blast to sprint through when you're not making yourself acquainted with a snow-drift wall or a tree. The game does feature a quick-reset to place you back on the track should you err, however many of the tracks feature incredibly harsh restrictions that will reset you should you even think of going vaguely 'off road'.

This inconsistency in the gameplay simply gets in the way of being able to have a good time with it while it tries to make up its mind about being a serious racer or a fun arcade romp. Hardcore Dirt Bike is still playable with a bit of caution, but it's a hard game to trust completely and may warrant some careful consideration before purchasing.

Screenshots

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