Jeremy McGrath Supercross World

Race as or against Jeremy McGrath in this, the definitive Supercross racing and stunt game.

If you were to take screenshots of this alongside screenshots of the N64 motorbike games and ask people to guess which one was a GameCube game, they’d probably vote for Excitebike or Top Gear Hyperbike, with Supercross World getting dismissed outright. Hell, even if this was on the N64, I would be critisising the graphics due to the shoddy textures, low poly models and how none of the objects look like they’re part of the world they inhabit.

Supercross World has four main modes. Baja give you open world levels where you have to follow a giant arrow to the next checkpoint, which all seem randomly placed on the map. On more than one map, the very first jump is a large one that’s flat out impossible to make from the starting line. They’re all bland and just a horrible mishmash of textures.

Indoor is the next one, taking place on small tracks inside stadiums. As the arenas as smaller, the graphics look slightly better, which really adds to how mismatched the entire game feels. With actual corners to make, you’ll also quickly realise how little control you have over the bikes and, just like the graphics, it never feels like your bike is actually on the track.

The outdoor tracks kind of have the opposite problem with the graphs. Objects still look out of place, but now the off-road and track all merge together and it’s extremely difficult to tell which direction the track is going, or where the edges are. Veer off and you have a three second countdown to get back to a place close to where you left before being reset. It’s a truly horrible form of racing.

The freestyle stunt mode doesn’t really have anything terrible about it, other than the wonky steering and physics, but there’s no fun or joy in pulling off stunts. To try and get some entertainment from this game, you’ll have to look outside the box.

In many games, if you try to go off the map, there will be ways of stopping the player. Either there will be a natural barrier, some fences or blockades stopping your progress, some have invisible walls and others fade you to black to reset you. Supercross World has its own special way.

You see, if you try to drive off the map in Baja, you and your bike will get flung back across the map at high speed, as you hurtle in the air for miles until you crash, and then reset close to where you landed. It’s really silly and doesn’t gel with the rest of the game (a common theme), but it’s still by far the best thing about the game, even if it does get boring after the first time.

Worst

The bikes handle like they’re not stuck to the ground, as if they’re cardboard cutouts attached to sticks, with the terrain rolling below. Steer gently, and the bike and rider slide sideways across the screen, bolt upright. You can get the same effect by sitting in a passenger seat of a moving car and holding a toy bike up to the window.

Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #69

Remake or remaster?

Remaster the good ones like Excitebike 64.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Jeremy McGrath Supercross World.

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