Despite the sport’s popularity, there haven’t been many downhill mountain biking games. The only other one I’m familiar with is Downhill Domination on the PS2. “Avatar downhill” is certainly the only one I’m familiar with on any flavour of Xbox.
The game exists in some kind of alternate universe where downhill mountain bikers don’t wear helmets (what the heck’s with that?!) and ride bikes without any kind of suspension (again, the heck’s with that?!). But ultimately the game’s all about ripping down mountainsides at tremendous speed, and doing so with a friend if you wish (1-2 players offline, 1-12 players online). The game’s not perfect, you kind of slide against the sides of the track rather than crash into them for example, but I did enjoy it and it was nice to finally have a mountain biking game on XBLIG. Just don’t look for realism, take it as it is: a exercise in speed.
Here’s what the developer (RIC) has to say about the game:
“Exciting bike races of your Avatar through mountains and forests, across lakes and tunnels, while avoiding obstacles and your opponents. Enjoy the 24 circuits and 6 game modes (Single Race, Time Attack, Racing for points and Tournaments), alone, against a friend in split screen or against the rest of the planet through Xbox Live.”
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