RIDE ON TIME

MOTOGP 22 looks back at an historic season in style

- Phil Iwaniuk

Modern MotoGP is in a golden era. 2021 saw eight different winners across 18 races, and so far this season we’ve had three different riders on the top step in four races, including two taking their maiden victories. It’s unpredictable, packed with talent and spectacle, and guaranteed entertainment every race. Naturally, then, the focus of Milestone’s licensed bike sim MotoGP 22 is the 2009 season.

An all-new mode, titled Nine: Season 2009, takes you back to a bygone era when Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner, and Pedrosa jostled their 1,000cc machines around each other for the wins, by way of a documentary-style video series directed and narrated by filmmaker Mark Neale, and a series of challenges intertwined between them.

The challenges are straightforward, the objectives always focusing on either overtaking or gapping opponents. But you’re right there, among a full grid of 2009 riders, listening to a classic inline-four screaming its lungs out and looking for a gap between Rossi’s knee and the apex. Truthfully, for those with even a passing interest in the sport, that’s really enough.

That’s not to say Milestone shirks any responsibility in simulating the current season. As ever, all three categories of racing are present, correct and resplendent in 2022 liveries. And as ever, that lends a depth to its career mode that not even Codies’ F1 games can quite match. When you finally move up to the premier class you feel like you earned it, like there’s a story to how you got here. It remains the biggest pull of the series, even with the inclusion of the 2009 season playable doc this year.