In this Motocross Madness sequel, you are a lone rider taking your trusty steel steed through its paces as you burn up the landscape and soar through the air. Motocross Madness 2 delivers the same offroad, dirt bike racing as the original version, with some new additions, such as more tricks, larger tracks and a career mode.

Much like it’s predecessor, the first element that grabs you in MM2 are the graphics. Simply put, they are absolutely gorgeous. With a wide array of environments, from a ski resort in winter to the Guatemalan jungle, no detail remains unattended. Trees have leaves. Cars have exhausts. Structures are unique objects with doorways that you can actually ride through, rather than simply being big, blocky obstacles.

And speaking of obstacles, there are plenty of them. In addition to the usual fare of trees, rocks and walls, now there is traffic, farm equipment and even low flying planes. All of these environments are individually rendered with their own rudimentary AI. The larger tracks do not mean more open space; they just mean more stuff to look at. Which is especially true in the Enduro races, where there is no track, just a little arrow in the lower left corner that points you to the next gate. The tendency here is to wander off, but such is rewarded with interesting artifacts strewn about the landscape, such as a missile silo or even an alien spacecraft!

The sound is also well done with appropriate and correct directional effects. This version offers lots of extra sound features. Pull up next to a trailer in the trailer park and you might hear a baby crying or music playing. Ride under the power lines and the familiar high–voltage hum follows you. In the stadium tracks, on the Pro Circuits, the crowd reacts positively or negatively to your antics.

Motocross Madness 2 also has that same addicting playability as the first game — to a point. For the first few hours, or days (depending on your skill and attention span), you are giddy with excitement as you take off across the terrain, pulling off tight tricks and spectacular wrecks. You soar high through the air and open up the throttle in the flats. Eventually, this grows old and you decide to get down and dirty and actually play the game properly (as in "try to win the race"), and that’s when the trouble starts. After a couple of races against computer–controlled cyclists, two elements became very clear to me. One, I suck at racing, and two, the keyboard simply does not cut it as far as your control device.

As a test study, I went online and entered The Zone to try out my skills against some more friendly (and hopefully more fallible) opponents. I entered a newbie game and poured it on. The slaughter was horrible. After being lapped twice and asked if I was having computer troubles, I meekly asked if anyone else was having trouble with the keyboard interface.

"Keyboard? You’re using your keyboard? AHHAHAHAHA!" Ahhhh, yes, the familiar "What a maroon" jibes.

A quick poll revealed that almost everyone was using some form of controller, and what controller was mentioned the most? You guessed it — Microsoft’s Sidewinder series. As it turns out, due to a lack of gradient steering with the keyboard, it is almost impossible to win a race in MM2 without such a controller. Is this fact mentioned in the literature? Is it part of the recommended system requirements? Of course not. Knowing beforehand that your $44.95 investment is going to have to be coupled with an additional $54.95 (Sidewinder Freestyle) investment (prices based on Microsoft retail prices) may not be very conducive to sales. What works a lot better is for the company to suck you in with the game’s initial playability and then force you to upgrade as you scream in frustration . . .Does Microsoft appall us at their blatant display of greed? Yes. Are we really surprised? No.

So, grumbling, I shell out the dough and plug in the Sidewinder, ready to attack the Pro Circuit. While the controller did vastly improve my racing ability (I can now either win or hold my own on most tracks), it did not improve what has to be the most uncompelling and bland economy I have encountered in a game.

The premise is good; win races to earn purse money and attract sponsors so you can upgrade your equipment. The implementation is bad; way too much money to start with and no way to purchase anything makes this feature quite boring. As you continue to win races, more equipment becomes available for you to choose from in the drop–down menu. The garage is achingly rudimentary, with only six settings, and has no involvement in the economy (you can’t buy better parts). I was intrigued by the idea of sponsors and I was hoping that this process would be explored. However, the only facet of sponsorship incorporated is transparent, with company identifications appearing only on the names of your bikes and pads. Microsoft tried to link the tricks with sponsorship, but only succeeded in making the whole idea of winning a race moot. If you start to loose, just head off for some big hills and start pulling off tricks. In about 20 minutes, you will have far more money than if you won the race! A simple point system linked to the tricks would have sufficed. A specific number of points attracting certain sponsors, with each sponsor offering a different deal and — oops! I’m raving again. What do I know about game development? What qualifications do I have to make such statements? After all, I just play the games . . .

Overall, Microsoft has produced a vanilla sequel to an original game that proved to be a breakthrough. With some minor improvements, and one ridiculously blundered addition, the question is: Is it worth the upgrade?

My suggestion: If you’re thinking of buying a new controller, and your pocketbook enjoys a good gouging now and then, by all means spill the cash. You can just ignore the career mode and the more expansive environments will be worth your time. If you are a normal, sane person, and have less disposable income than Bill Gates, stay with the original game. It still provides most of your motocross craving, and you will be able to afford your other cravings, like food and water.

Overall Game Rating: C

Microsoft’s website