Nearly every video game you’ve ever played has a specific goal -- defeat the aliens, save the princess, or solve the mystery. But do you always need to adhere to the goals? Of course not! Sometimes it can be more fun to completely ignore what the game wants you to do and instead play the game on your own terms.

Case study, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2

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During the PS2 era, extreme sports games became extremely popular led by the hugely popular Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise. Copycat games quickly filled the market, from Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer to Aggressive Inline and even the “edgy by 12-year-old boy’s standards” BMX XXX.

These games all took their respective extreme sports and followed a similar format - learn the basics, master the tricks and then explore each stage to complete challenges and set high scores.

Being a huge fan of the Tony Hawk franchise, I picked up the BMX game Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 on the Gamecube. After spending some time with the main campaign, I grew tired of it after a few hours of gameplay. Before walking away from and forgetting about this game, I discovered one of the other gameplay modes named “Wipeout.” Intrigued, I gave it a chance.

And it completely changed my opinion of this game.

“Wipeout” mode threw the same gameplay and levels at you, but changed the goal from completing challenges to beating up your biker as much as you could. You earned points depending on how bad he got hurt.

The combination of hazard-filled levels, hilarious ragdoll physics, the ability to bail from your bike at any time and grab ledges, rails or objects after you’ve bailed turned this average game into the go-to multiplayer game when my friend and I had game night.

The first stage gives you plenty of ramps, overhead barriers and golf carts to throw yourself from. Once we discovered the freeway level, that was it for us. There’s nothing in gaming that I can compare to launching a ragdoll BMX biker into freeway traffic and having him grab onto one of the cars whizzing by at 70 MPH. Its euphoric and resulted in some of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed in gaming.

Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 can be had for about $5 or less, so if you ever see it and have a console to play it on, it has my highest recommendation.

What about other games?

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There’s something to be said about taking a game and breaking the rules to have fun with it in your own way. Sandbox games that became popular following the success of Grand Theft Auto III let us run around virtual cities and cause whatever havoc we wanted while ignoring the main quest as long as we wanted. I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun with friends in games like Mario Kart by driving around the tracks backwards to mess with them, or picking Donkey Kong in Smash Bros simply so I could use his ability to grab other players, hoist them over his head and walk off of a platform with my helpless friend wiggling to get free.

Its all about having fun

While great graphics, interesting stories and tight gameplay are important, in the end gaming is about having fun. If playing a game “the wrong way” is how you wring the most enjoyment out of it, by all means do so. I’ve spent far more time with Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX than I have with many AAA games because playing that game “the wrong way” was just so much fun.

What do you think? Do you have any particular games you play the wrong way because its more fun? Let's discuss!

Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!

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_{^{Title image source: Original photo by retro-room}}