Pumped BMX Pro is an arcade-style trick-based game on Nintendo Switch. Learn more about it in our Pumped BMX Pro review!

 

Pumped BMX Pro is a 2.5D BMX arcade-style trick-based release on Nintendo Switch in which you will take your racer from the bottom to the top by completing each of the available 60 stages as you perform many of the 40+ tricks in the game, all while trying to stick your landing as you carry on towards the finish line. Momentum is key in this one since the short levels don’t allow much room for error. If you’re not going fast enough by the time you hit a jump, you might end up falling short and will have to start over. Luckily restarting the race is almost instant, so you will be able to learn from your mistakes and fix things in no time.

Controls are simple and to the point. You will control your rider with either the left analog stick or the D-Pad and will pump your bike with the A button. Let go of the A button when you’re close to reaching a jump ramp, and hold it down again when you’re going to stick your landing. The right analog stick can be flicked around to execute tricks from three different tiers. The right analog stick on its own gives you access to Tier 1 tricks while holding down the ZL button gives you access to Tier 2 tricks. Tier 3 tricks are activated by holding down the ZR button. You can also spin by pressing the L or R buttons, and that’s it!

 

Pumped BMX Pro will get you started with a tutorial so that you don’t go into it blindly. This will teach you the basics for controls, pumping, jumping, sticking your landing and doing flips and tricks to increase your score. Once you’re done with the tutorial, you should immediately hit restart so that you can have another go with everything you’ve learned so that you can max out your score. If you don’t follow the precise instructions from the game, you will fail that part of the tutorial and will need to do it again until you complete the objective.

This is important because as you take on each stage, you will get to aim at getting the highest level score possible, as well as the highest trick score possible. The better you do, the more stars you will get, and you’ll also aim at getting your name on the leaderboards to grab a good spot with your overall score. You can get a bronze, silver, gold or platinum star for your efforts, so if you want to 100% the game, you’re going to need to collect every single available star. Learning how many tricks you can pull during each jump so that you can still have enough momentum to clear the last jump to reach the finish line is a very important objective you should always be trying to nail down.

 

There are also skill challenges to complete as you go, for things such as completing the level (which is sort of a freebie), as well as doing different specific tricks for each level. These include tricks such as the 360, doing a backflip, doing a tailwhip, doing a 360 barspin, and more. You don’t need to do all challenges at once, so you can focus on doing one or two for each run of the level so that you can quickly complete all of them since there is practically no loading between new runs. Completing challenges will help you to unlock new areas in the game that will feature more challenges for you to take on, unlocking more and more locations as you go.

If you need help to learn how to pull off each of the available tricks, you can press the – button to see a list of all 24 tricks at your disposal. You need to learn all of these so that you can know which tricks to pull during each jump, as well as to when you should mix them to bump your overall trick and level score. Some jumps are better for Tier 1 tricks you can link with Tier 2 tricks, while others offer major air time so that you can go crazy and mix tricks from all tiers back to back to back to maximize your score multiplier – as long as you manage to stick the landing that is!

Pumped BMX Pro is a fun arcade-style trick-based up for grabs on your Nintendo Switch that is available for $14.99. The game sets out to offer a straightforward and to the point arcade experience with room for experimenting with different tricks as you try to get a score that is good enough to get you all the stars for that stage and a high trick score that can get you all trick stars. But if you’re looking for a game with a bit of extra depth

Disclaimer
This Pumped BMX Pro review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Curve.