PlayStation 2

American Chopper

A team in St. Petersburg, Russia, developed American Chopper. This may explain why, for instance, a mission to drive from Montgomery, NY, to Albany takes you through what appears to be Florida, or why another part of NY looks exactly like Death Valley. This disconnection between source material and final product extends to the game design, which completely fails to capture any of the show's appeal. American Chopper is a classic example of a game that seems to have little purpose other than cashing in on a hot license.

It's possible that there's a great idea for a game buried somewhere in the Discovery Channel's hit reality TV show, American Chopper. Each week the Teutul clan--Paul, Paul Jr., and Mikey--scream at each other while working against the clock to design and build a custom chopper. If there is a decent game to be wrenched out of that concept, however, Activision's American Chopper isn't it. Lacking both the volatile charm and the compelling technical details of the series, it's little more than a halfhearted racing game with some guest appearances by characters and locations you've seen on TV.

American Chopper's controls are as choppy as they come. They're so bad the game borders on being unplayable. Steering is neither smooth nor realistic nor tight and arcade-like. It's hard to define how the game steers, except to say that it's awkward and not at all what you'd expect from a driving game.