American Chopper
About American Chopper
From the archive
This is the original PS2Home fact sheet for American Chopper, preserved from the early-2000s archive. Details reflect the PAL release as catalogued at the time.
Official fact sheet
Gamers have to work against the clock to design and build customised choppers under the orders of cult reality show stars Paul and Paul Junior.
This game will appeal to fans of the popular series but also, with its racing, vehicular combat and customisable upgrades, it has the potential to attract a huge range of gamers.
- Ride seven custom choppers featured in the Discovery Channel series, including the legendary Black Widow
- Build and customise your own design with over 1000 parts and accessories
- Compete in reckless driving mode, point-to-point races, motoball, drag racing and much more
American Chopper was a single-player motorcycle racer based on the Discovery Channel reality series about Orange County Choppers. Developed by Creat Studios, it put the player in the role of the shop’s unnamed new recruit, working for Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. while riding, customising and racing the company’s distinctive choppers. The North American version appeared in November 2004, while the PAL release followed in 2005. For the UK archive, the documented European release date is Friday, 23 September 2005, not 9 September.
Story and setting
The game treated the player as a new arrival at the Teutuls’ workshop. Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. supplied their own voices, sent the player on jobs and gradually introduced the bikes, races and build choices that make up the career. The setting drew on the programme’s Orange County Choppers identity, although the game’s version of upstate New York was a fictionalised and rather inconsistent interpretation of the real locations.
The career included trips and events associated with the television series, including Daytona and Sturgis. The player could ride several famous show bikes, with promotional material specifically naming the POW/MIA Bike, Jet Bike and Black Widow Bike. The release description also presented the player with a cross-country race against Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. before moving on to the player’s own themed chopper.
How it played
American Chopper was much more concerned with riding than with detailed fabrication. Career mode was divided into chapters, each containing a mixture of required and optional challenges. These included checkpoint races, drag races, timed runs, open-road riding through traffic and free-roaming events in a town environment. A poker race awarded playing cards at checkpoints, while the later motoball events mixed motorcycle racing with a rough approximation of football.
Style points were earned by driving cleanly, frightening pedestrians, narrowly missing traffic and escaping pursuing police. They could unlock bonus missions and additional parts, and were sometimes necessary to complete a challenge. The customisation system covered components such as forks, wheels, fenders, fuel tanks and handlebars, as well as paint and decorative details. In practice, however, the choices were mostly cosmetic: the game provided little useful performance information, and reviewers found the handling stiff, the objectives repetitive and the bike-building thread too slight for a game built around the American Chopper name.
PAL and UK details
The PAL PlayStation 2 release is identified by the SLES-53108 product code and was published in Europe by Zoo Digital Publishing. That is the contemporary European publisher credit; Zushi Games should not be used as the original 2005 UK publisher name. The surviving release records give 23 September 2005 for the European version, with the UK-specific retail date not separately documented.
The PAL edition carried a PEGI 12 rating for bad language and violence and was an English-language release. It was a DVD-ROM game for one player, supported vibration and required a PlayStation 2 memory card with at least 216KB free space for the PAL save. No UK-exclusive content, alternate campaign or separate PAL gameplay mode has been documented.
Reception
American Chopper was received poorly by most critics. GameSpot’s December 2004 review awarded it 5.2 out of 10, describing it as a half-hearted racer that failed to capture the television show’s personality or technical detail. Its criticisms focused on the limited customisation, bland presentation, stiff controls and repetitive structure.
The preserved review record gives the PlayStation 2 version a Metacritic score of 44 out of 100 from six critics. The same record lists 40 per cent from Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK and 40 per cent from Computer and Video Games, making the British response broadly consistent with the American reviews. The game had a recognisable licence and some unusual event types, but those strengths were not enough to lift it above the level of a routine budget tie-in.
Legacy
Today, American Chopper is chiefly remembered as an obscure licensed PS2 racer rather than as an important motorcycle game. Its most interesting historical feature is the mismatch between the source material, which was built around workshop craftsmanship and family drama, and the finished game, which spends most of its time on fairly conventional races and traffic challenges. The Teutuls’ appearances and the named show bikes give it period flavour, but the limited build system means it never became the workshop simulator that the licence seemed to promise.
It is not generally treated as a high-value rarity. PAL copies still appear on the second-hand market and are normally affordable, although complete condition, the manual and the correct PAL disc code matter to collectors. The original disc remains a straightforward curiosity for PS2 and American Chopper fans, with no verified modern PlayStation reissue.
Screenshots (25 Jan-2007)
Videos
Frequently asked questions
When was American Chopper released in the UK?
The surviving PAL release records give Friday, 23 September 2005, with Zoo Digital Publishing as the European publisher. The frequently repeated date of 9 September 2005 is not supported by the release records checked.
Does American Chopper have online multiplayer?
No. It is an offline, single-player game with no online multiplayer mode.
Can I play the PS2 disc on a PS3, PS4 or PS5?
The safest option is an original PS2. Sony listed the early European 60GB PS3 models as playing most PlayStation 2 discs, although compatibility can vary by title; later PS3 systems generally do not accept PS2 discs. PS4 and PS5 support their own newer libraries rather than original PS2 discs.
Is American Chopper rare or expensive on PS2?
It is generally obtainable and is not widely regarded as a scarce or premium PS2 title. Complete PAL copies with the manual and the SLES-53108 disc are the preferable version for a UK collection.
What is the best way to play it now?
An original PAL disc on a working PAL PS2 is the least complicated method. PCSX2 is another option on a suitable PC when used with a legally created dump of your own disc; check the emulator’s current compatibility information before setting it up.
