LocoCycle

Name: LocoCycle
Item: LocoCycle
Rating: 1
Author: Chad Sapieha

Game review by

Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media

Common Sense says

age 13+

(i)

Poor car-combat game with light overtones of discrimination.

Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
$14.99
2013

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age 14+

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A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this game.

Educational Value

LocoCycle wasn't created with educational intent, and we don't recommend it for learning.

Positive Messages

A failed comedic narrative includes mildly offensive jokes told at the expense of race and culture. Action, meanwhile, focuses on the ludicrous notion of a kung fu-capable sentient motorcycle that has little regard for human life and merrily kills both its pursuers and any innocent civilians that get in its way.

Positive Role Models & Representations

Pablo -- a poor fellow held captive and dragged along by the bike -- seems a nice enough sort. He continually pleads for the bike to stop, but the bike doesn't understand him because it doesn't speak Spanish. He's pretty ineffectual. His most significant purpose in the story is as a kind of club the bike uses to whack incoming assailants.

Ease of Play

Pretty straightforward controls for steering and shooting. Melee combat is mostly only a matter of repeatedly tapping a couple of different buttons. Most players should get the hang of things pretty quickly. That said, the game's green health gauge can deplete pretty rapidly if you aren't accurate and efficient. It can take some practice.

Violence

Players control a rogue, artificially intelligent motorcycle that runs over pedestrians and smashes into civilian cars with no penalty and uses guns and spinning, twisting pieces of chassis to assault and kill soldiers sent to stop it. There is no blood or gore (though you can see a dribble of red coming from a wounded character's lip in one of the stills displayed while the game loads), but the combat is pretty much constant.

Sex

Occasional instances of suggestive language within dialogue, such as a joke whose punch line includes the word "screw" as a double entendre.

Language

Infrequent profanity, including the word "s--t."

Consumerism

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

What parents need to know

Parents need to know LocoCycle is a motorcycle combat game available only via download. Players control a sentient motorcycle that's a hazard to the roads, smashing into cars and pedestrians while being chased by soldiers. Players can make the motorbike shoot enemies or jump into the air and twist around in melee combat. There's no blood or gore, but the fighting is pretty much constant and lots of people die, including civilians. Worth noting: The game's joke-filled, live-action narrative scenes -- which go for cheap laughs at the expense of stereotypical representations of an African king, a Russian general, a Korean commander, and others -- are intended to be campy but have the potential to offend.

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What's it about?

LOCOCYCLE is a vehicular-combat game about a sentient motorbike that gets struck by lightning and goes a little crazy. It blasts out of its garage -- its mechanic caught by the pant leg and dragged along for the ride -- before going for a chaotic drive along highways dense with cars. Giving chase are various types of soldiers, along with a second sentient bike. Players control the rogue bike, which is armed with guns and can leap into the air to perform a strange sort of mechanical kung fu, swinging pieces of its chassis -- and sometimes also its hapless mechanic -- to whack incoming assailants. Grades and points are earned based on style and accuracy and whether certain objectives have been met. Between levels players can upgrade various pieces of their bike to make it more powerful for the next stage.

Is it any good?

There's not a lot to like about this exclusive downloadable game for Xbox One. The live-action short movies that punctuate levels clearly are meant to be funny and outrageous but come off as lazy, dull, and -- thanks to some unimaginative stereotypes -- perhaps even a little offensive. The action, meanwhile, is downright dreary. Aerial melee combat is mostly a matter of button mashing, and shooting the exact same vehicles over and over again on the ground is pretty much the definition of repetitive.

Add on a heaping helping of bland artistry -- this is probably the ugliest game currently available for Xbox One, with highways filled with flavorless cookie-cutter cars and achingly dull scenery -- and you have a game with very little to recommend it. Close your eyes and pick an Xbox One game at random, and it's bound to be a lot better than LocoCycle.

Talk to your kids about ...

Families can talk about racial stereotypes. What is a racial stereotype? Why might it be offensive?
Families also can discuss playing as a character (or thing) that indiscriminately kills civilians. How does this make you feel? Do you attempt to avoid hurting innocents while playing? How do you think this adds to or detracts from the experience?