Nail’d Demo Review

I came across this demo while searching the other day and decided to take a look at the gallery before I downloaded it. Once I saw dirt bikes I knew I had to try it. I was never really into dirt bikes and quads, the most fun I had with a game that included those was Excitebike, but that was strictly dirt bikes. In high school I had friends who were all into Motocross and spoke highly of Jeremy McGrath and Seth Enslow, so when Jeremy McGrath’s Supercross 2000 came out for the N64 I decided to ask for it. I can’t remember if it was for a holiday or my birthday, but I ended up getting the game, and I love it. The first thing I heard when I turned it on was the Offspring playing on the intro screen, I started the game and was in awe of the sounds of the engines of the dirt bikes as I raced over various tracks, it sounded just like the Supercross did on TV, the high pitched engines cutting on and off depending on if they were turning or taking a jump. The main thing that I really like, because it surprised me, was that I understood the mechanics of the bike, I knew for certain courses I had to have certain wheels with a certain type of grip, fixed the ratio of speed and acceleration and conquered that whole game. The next game to come close to this excitement was Pure, I played it at Rene’s house because when he got his Xbox 360 it was one of the free games. I enjoyed the HD graphics and in depth customization on the quads, I’m sure if I would have owned the game I would have played a lot more, but since I was over there for a couple of hours I just got a taste, but I defiantly wanted more.

When the Nail’d demo finished I eagerly started it up, after the intro video I was treated to “Duality” by Slipknot on the intro screen, the first thing I went to was the garage to see what I could customize. Being the demo I had quite a few things I could do, mostly paint but searching through all the locked options I could tell that the customization could go way deeper than in the Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 game. I quickly painted my quad a variety of colors and got started.

There are only two levels in the demo, but believe me it is all you will need to know that this game is a definite buy or at least a multi-time rental. The two levels are “Sawmill” and “Railroad”, I decided to try the sawmill first. I never once looked at the control but some how I knew they would come to me, which they did. I didn’t care where I placed because I was too enthralled by the scenery, they really took some time with the surroundings.  You have short and tall treed, trees falling down blocking your path, dips, huge jumps, trains whizzing by you and of course the other riders. For being the default quad the controls were great, you weren’t slipping and sliding because your wheels weren’t the right style and your steering wasn’t upgraded, you actually felt like you had one of the upgraded quads already. The second level is the railroad, pretty much the same thing, except there are a few indoor areas, the best part of this level was the ability to land on top of a moving train and it be part of the course. This game encourages outrageous behavior, I thought I had messed up and found out that there was a part of the course that I could only access by riding on a speeding train, which was amazing.  I also like the fact that you can steer in the air and even boost mid air if you think your not going to make a certain jump. There isn’t a point system but you do get little notifications that you did something cool,  also your boost doesn’t have to be used all at one time you can tap it for a short boost or hold it down use it all. The jumps are incredible, they give you enough hang time to look around and see the environment, again which must have taken a long time because it looks very polished.

I have two complaints about this game and they are very minor. The first complaint is the non-existent tricks, there are huge jumps here and a superman or a heel clicker would compliment them nicely. The second compalint is that you could only use quads in the demo, I would love to see how the dirt bike handled.

Below I have included a video of me playing the demo and both levels, enjoy!

[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMUvBebQicU ]