Streetdog BMX Review – When Mastery Is the Reward

Streetdog BMX Review

Sometimes I’ll get a code that feels meant for someone else. Some other gamer, maybe with a totally different skillset, different tastes, and a different temperament. Streetdog BMX is one of those games. I see the vision, I really do. This game will be a blast for anyone with a passion for trick-based sports titles. If you’ve got the patience to master these moves, you’re sure to love this one. But I, I am not that someone. This might be the most ‘not for me’ game I’ve played in five years or more.

If you’ve played a single Tony Hawk title, you’re prepared for what’s to come. If you’ve dabbled in any Dave Mirra games, even better. You ride your way through a series of challenges, unlocking new stages as you go. You’ve got flips, grinds, manuals, and wallrides at your disposal. The art style is cartoonish and clean, the stages are huge, and the controls are smooth. You’ve got a limited number of game modes, but a wide variety of challenges to make up for it. If you’re patient and persistent, you can see it all.

This leads directly to one of my biggest issues with Streetdog BMX. My reserves of patience are quite limited, as it turns out. I need at least the illusion of progression or acquisition to keep me plugged in. Instead, this game feels more like actually getting good at BMX tricks. You’re approaching a specific move or combo over and over again, trying everything you can think of to master it. If you can dig your way through the muck, you end up on the other side, delirious with victory and ready to tackle the next challenge.

Satisfaction Through Success

For me, this gameplay loop only served to test my temper and erode my resolve. It turns out I’ve been spoiled immensely by things like experience points, save files, and strategy guides. The raw, unfiltered challenge of simply mastering a perplexing set of moves is practically poison to my palette. I would rather hop between challenges, or better yet, come back prepared and leveled up. There’s none of that happening here. You either nail that chain of wallrides, or accept your defeat.

To that end, the controls are reliable and properly responsive. You never feel like you’ve been cheated by the machine, so to speak. Well, almost never. I found myself struggling with the acceleration system on occasion. It’s a simple double-tap and hold, but once in a while that critical second input somehow betrayed me. It’s the sort of issue you can only discover while trying a certain combo several dozen times in a row.

You can do a lot with a little in terms of customization. Clothing, hair, piercings, and tattoos can all be tweaked to your exacting standards. The bikes get a similar level of care and attention. If you want to make that next run all decked out in Joker colors, you can absolutely do so. The controls can also be adjusted, although not to the same degree. You can mess with a lot of control settings, but it never felt like you could effect significant change. Once again, it all comes down to your patience and your ability to master all the skills.

Persistence and Patience

Although I’ve made a real meal out of the difficulty, the only serious issue is one of progression. You’ve got to do a lot of work to unlock each stage, you see. If that were adjusted, even a little, then the overall sense of frustration and despair would be seriously impacted. But this comes back to my need to hop between challenges. In other words, my shortened attention span, and my lack of patience. In exploring my issues with Streetdog BMX, a picture is painted of this game’s ideal audience.

If you’ve got a history with BMX games, extreme sports titles, and trick-based sports sims, you’ve come to the right place. You can whittle away the hours mastering every trick in the book, while steadily improving your overall skills. That same patience and persistence causes the whole game to open up before you. All the different challenges, the various stages, and the potential secrets are yours to discover. But for someone like me, this game is basically untenable. I dug deep, searching for every ounce of grit and determination I could scrounge up. The assembled supplies were meager indeed. While I mostly struggled through this game, you might find yourself enthralled with Streetdog BMX.

***A Steam key was provided by the publisher***