Last night a bunch of us descended onto Shane’s house to play Downhill Domination. I had read a bunch of reviews, and heard some mountain bikers thought on the game. It seemed that “gamers” didn’t enjoy the game play or the flow, but the mountain bikers did.

I fall into the latter category. It was a fun, challenging game with plenty of opportunities for carnage. On the different tracks there was all sorts of natural and man made jumps. The powerups definitely helpd get you down the course in one piece.

There are some downfalls to the game. Sometimes I found it difficult to discern which features were rock faces, and which ones were jumps. The characters make a nice sounding splat when they hit a rock face, instead of the nice jump I was expecting. The thing that bugged me is one of the power ups was a temporary speed boost. When your player hits it, they sometimes take off so fast and unexpectedly that they are difficult to control. Many times I got the boost, then missed the next corner, and splatted myself into a rock face.

Things I liked: graphics were pretty good, the courses were extremely varied, the riders and bikes were names I could recognize (for the most part), and the tricks weren’t too off the wall (besides dropping off a jump and falling for seeral seconds, only to have the bike suspension soak it all up ;)).

All we played was 2 player mode. I can imagine that single player has the standard unlock tracks, strengthen character, improve equipment as you progress.

Very fun game. I am going to look into getting a copy I think.