As Flash has grown as a game development platform, I have seen many fad genres that stand out due to the simplicity and ease they offer the designers and programmers. Mouse shooters, dress up games, stat-based sim games, etc… have all shared their time in the limelight. In 2006 the fad that got the most attention was drawing games.

These games are great for the game designer, because they don’t really need to spend much time on level designs, and can use any basic game engine for following user-drawn lines they want. This lets designers get the games out much quicker then other genres.

Drawing games are great for the user because they offer a ton of variety and control in how a game flows. It’s win-win… or at least that’s how it started out.
Stunt Bike Draw, by FreeWorldGroup.com (creators of the Bow Man games and Deflector), tries very hard to use this fad and it’s proven formula for success to give you a stunt jumping game with crazy user-made jumps and crashes.

The art in the game isn’t quite production quality, but it’s definately well done, if a bit dark and low in contrast. The bike moves pretty well with all the bounciness you would expect, and the tracks you draw show some innovation over other drawing games by actually generating the braces that hold the track to the ground rather then just using free-floating lines.

The sound effects are great too, the engine revs, cashes and smashes all sound as they should. The music however is very VERY repetitive with no variety whatsoever. It sounds like a fast-food employed punk ass kid playing dance music in his 1993 Honda Civic with holes in the floor panels, busted AC and a $3k subwoofer in the back.

The gameplay is what should make you forget the horrible bass beats that the music rapes your ears with, but alas, it misses the mark (not a good thing to do with a stunt game). Drawing the ramps and watching the bike fly is pretty satisfying, but when you realize how hard it is to crash on the landing ramp there is no challenge or fulfilment.

All you need to do here is keep your landing ramps high enough from the ground that at least ONE wheel will land on them. You can completely miss with the front tire, and the back tire will catch on and suspend you safely, like some kind of batman bike might do.

The “level design” in the game is pretty lame. They just add these hopping robot alien water balloon things that seem way out of place, and cars that are smaller than the stuntman himself. Where’s the swimming pool full of sharks? The flaming ring of death? The fat lady that lives up the street?

As with a LOT of less creative drawing games, this one will give you at least 5 minutes of entertainment, but if you like these kinds of games, there are a lot of better choices to invest your time into.

This game isn’t BAD… but it’s not that great either… I think we are due for a new fad.

[ Play Stunt Bike Draw ]