Any Gen Xers out there born and raised in the 1970’s will be very familiar with the name “Evel Knievel”. The American stuntman, known for his daring motorcycle jumps, was a household legend that spawned many games and toys for children of the time, of which I am one. I proudly owned the original Evel Knievel wind-up motorcycle toy with an action man-like figure on this bike. I even remember the headlines of Evel jumping and nearly killing himself at Wembley Stadium.
So, it was a pleasing surprise to see in 2025 yet another tie-in to the name game on the Nintendo Switch: Evel Knievel! The reason I mention the history of who Evel Knievel was is because this game very loosely follows the career highlights of what the very real stuntman was actually doing and when.
The first impression when firing up the game for the first time is very good. The art style especially stands out with some excellent, bold, and colourful visuals, plastered with some old skool Batman-type banners flashing across the screen to announce your new best time or that you have crashed.
It’s also visually clear to see with the excellent and smooth graphics where your motorcycle and character are on the screen in this 2D side-scrolling game. That is, for obvious reasons, a very important aspect to be accurate with the physics-based jumps and balancing you will need to get through the game.
The game itself only has ten levels, nine with bikes, one with a rocket bike. The bike levels have three jump scenarios per level, and the jumps get more difficult and lengthy the further you progress. If your bike is underpowered, you have to buy a new, more powerful one before continuing, but the game very clearly tells you when you need a new one. To fund getting a new bike, each level has coins to collect from the different routes each level has. However, it is pleasing to know that any coins collected, even while failing a level, are still added to your bank balance.
Aside from buying new bikes, you can also buy new outfits and, by completing in-game challenges, new helmets. Other than the single-player campaign, there is also a local multiplayer option of up to 4 players competing against each other on the same screen. It’s a shame there isn’t an online mode, but for a small developer and a small game, it is to be expected.
So, the nuances of the actual gameplay are a little bit hit and miss. The control scheme is very simple, accelerate/brake, lean back and forth on the joystick (or use the motion of the controller), and that’s it to time and judge your jumps, over, under and through the obstacles in your way until one final run up for the end of level big finale leap!
The game doesn’t do a great job of explaining or even showing you the actual controls, but you can also use the left and right triggers for acceleration and braking, too. In fact, the only things you’ll find in the settings are the SFX and music volumes!
I honestly got a little frustrated with the control scheme as the leaning only came into effect once the bike had a wheel or two off the ground. When it didn’t, this would then accidentally brake or speed up the bike unintentionally at times when you didn’t want it to. With some of the levels needing precise movements and speed, this suddenly became a source of frustration.
The difficulty of the game was odd in that for the first five levels, I was cruising along and could make each level by being careful and not too aggressive. All of the sudden, the game hit me with a difficulty spike that went through the roof, and it then took me as much time as I’d already played the game to finally get through one level alone.
The game then seemed to hit the sweet spot of challenging but not too much, and the fun flowed again. It wasn’t long, however, before I was already closing in on the last level, and it honestly felt like a disappointment that I was. You can go back to previous levels with a more powerful bike than you originally used to get to areas you couldn’t before, but that sadly didn’t mask over the lack of in-game content (which could have been filled with the aforementioned wish of a true online mode).
However, when the game clicks, it clicks very well and is a lot of fun to play. For being under £10, you are still getting value for money, but I would have liked a little more in the way of the campaign length, or a track editor, or an online mode to have gotten more out of the game.
Summary
Evel Knievel is a fun little game that definitely has its moments of satisfaction from completing levels and big jumps. The presentation, visuals, and audio also excel for a visually thrilling time. It’s just a shame the game has a slightly awkward and sometimes frustrating control scheme, and it doesn’t have quite enough single-player content to feel fulfilling. That being said, I still really enjoyed my time with the game and have picked it up again and again, even after completing it.
Developer: Barnstorm Games
Publisher: Happy Home Games
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 19th June 2025
