N
Nightwolf
Lurker
MX VS ATV UNLEASHED
First things first. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, MX stands for MotoCross (or something like that). That’ll be driving motorbikes in the dirt with insane jumps to you and me. ATV stands for All-Terrain Vehicle, as in motorbikes with four wheels.
These two have had their own series for quite some time (“MX Unleashed” and “ATV Offroad Fury” to mention but two great games), and now it’s the clash of the titans all over again. (except no Harry Hamlin, but that’s a good thing.)
Anyway, let’s get down to business. MX vs ATV Unleashed (I’ll just say “this game” from now on to save time) combines dirtracing ATV mayhem with MX mayhem, and the result is quite obvious. A lot of fun mayhem just like before, only at least twice as much of it! This is a candybox, and you don’t have to share it. (it’s more fun if you do, but more on that later.)
For starters, we have four different championships. Two National championships and two THX Supercross championships. The National championships are basically 16 racing tracks. One championship are for MX bikes only, and the other one for ATV’s only. Standard stuff, in other words. The championships are split into 16 “weeks”, with each week being one track. When you start a week, you get to start a practice run first if you choose to. This is a normal 3-lap race against the other racers so you can test the track, and it really doesn’t matter much if you win or loose. If you win, you get to pick where in the starting grid you want to be when the actual race starts. To my knowledge, this is pointless since you all start next to each other anyway.
The TXQ Supercross championships are racing just like the National championships, but takes place on supercross tracks. These are indoor an a lot shorter than the National tracks, so I don’t bother commet them any further. They are fun, so why not test them?
Done with that, it’s on to the real fun. The Single Race. Look, I know what you’re asking. What? Single race? No championships? Ah, but one of the minor things I don’t like about this game. The Single Race lets you do pretty much whatever you want, and it does it well. Let’s say you want a race. Well, what kind of race do you want? Normal Supercross race with five people and fifty laps? No problem! Do you want to perfect your skills by having a bunch of tricks you need to perform as fast as possible? Not a problem! You can even have opponents! Maybe you fancy racing a golfcar of all things? Sure, why not? You can even fly helicopters and airplanes if you want to. Yes, you heard me. Helicopters and airplanes. And believe me, the physics on both of these are quite great compared to many other games. Not bad for bonus vehicles, eh? This just shows a little bit how great this game is.
And the tactics. Ah, how I love the tactics! You might not think tactic is important in a racing game, but it’s extremely important here. Everyone can perform a great jump, but can you land it? That’s the trick. To jump, you will need to push down on the analog stick or directional buttons at the base of the jump, and then quickly push up again jump before take off. This is called prewinding, and is the easy part. The harder part is knowing a) when to prewind and b) how much you should prewind. If you let go too soon you won’t jump far enough, and if you let go too late you’ll jump too far. Add heightissues so you’ll make it far enough, but too high and thus loose too much speed, and you have a problem. And this is just jumping. Want to add tricks into this as well? By now you should be airborne, so it’s time to think about the landing. Hardly any tracks have great jumps that continue straight forward, so you need to shift your weight quite a bit to adjust your bike or ATV according to the surface where you are about to land. Land with too much weight on the front or real wheel, and you are gonna crash. Land uphill, and you will loose a lot of speed. (even if you don’t crash). And what if you are facing a corner? On countless occasions I’ve landed at a 45 degree angle and just barely made it through the corner without flying off the track, especially on the later tracks. And that’s just jumping alone.
I could go on and on and on about the various gameplay elements like the excellent Waypoint race and the superb rubberband difficulty, but if I did I would never be finished. This game simply has tons of things to do, and I haven’t even started on all the unlockables. (If you want to unlock things, this game will satisfy even you. Trust me.) And you might have noticed I haven’t mentioned the looks, sound and all that, but the reason is so simple as I don’t bother. It looks and sounds as good as the rest, and that should be enough to know. If you like ATV’s or MX’s, get this game. It really is that good. Like Van Halen so nicely put it, “I want the best of both worlds!”
There are issues, though. Not many, but there are some. The manual mention you need to keep an eye out for shadows coming from behind, since it’s not that fun to have an ATV land on your head. This is a problem in the game. The bikes and ATV’s jump high, and they come crashing down hard. Several times, the opponents just run me over from behind, making me crawl in the mud. They simply ignore me. But hey, so does the cars in Gran Turismo 4 as well, so I guess that’s a general issue with all racing games.
Overal: 9/10
Bottom line: I bothered to write thsi review just for you guys and gals just to tell you how great this game is, and that should count for something. 8)
First things first. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, MX stands for MotoCross (or something like that). That’ll be driving motorbikes in the dirt with insane jumps to you and me. ATV stands for All-Terrain Vehicle, as in motorbikes with four wheels.
These two have had their own series for quite some time (“MX Unleashed” and “ATV Offroad Fury” to mention but two great games), and now it’s the clash of the titans all over again. (except no Harry Hamlin, but that’s a good thing.)
Anyway, let’s get down to business. MX vs ATV Unleashed (I’ll just say “this game” from now on to save time) combines dirtracing ATV mayhem with MX mayhem, and the result is quite obvious. A lot of fun mayhem just like before, only at least twice as much of it! This is a candybox, and you don’t have to share it. (it’s more fun if you do, but more on that later.)
For starters, we have four different championships. Two National championships and two THX Supercross championships. The National championships are basically 16 racing tracks. One championship are for MX bikes only, and the other one for ATV’s only. Standard stuff, in other words. The championships are split into 16 “weeks”, with each week being one track. When you start a week, you get to start a practice run first if you choose to. This is a normal 3-lap race against the other racers so you can test the track, and it really doesn’t matter much if you win or loose. If you win, you get to pick where in the starting grid you want to be when the actual race starts. To my knowledge, this is pointless since you all start next to each other anyway.
The TXQ Supercross championships are racing just like the National championships, but takes place on supercross tracks. These are indoor an a lot shorter than the National tracks, so I don’t bother commet them any further. They are fun, so why not test them?
Done with that, it’s on to the real fun. The Single Race. Look, I know what you’re asking. What? Single race? No championships? Ah, but one of the minor things I don’t like about this game. The Single Race lets you do pretty much whatever you want, and it does it well. Let’s say you want a race. Well, what kind of race do you want? Normal Supercross race with five people and fifty laps? No problem! Do you want to perfect your skills by having a bunch of tricks you need to perform as fast as possible? Not a problem! You can even have opponents! Maybe you fancy racing a golfcar of all things? Sure, why not? You can even fly helicopters and airplanes if you want to. Yes, you heard me. Helicopters and airplanes. And believe me, the physics on both of these are quite great compared to many other games. Not bad for bonus vehicles, eh? This just shows a little bit how great this game is.
And the tactics. Ah, how I love the tactics! You might not think tactic is important in a racing game, but it’s extremely important here. Everyone can perform a great jump, but can you land it? That’s the trick. To jump, you will need to push down on the analog stick or directional buttons at the base of the jump, and then quickly push up again jump before take off. This is called prewinding, and is the easy part. The harder part is knowing a) when to prewind and b) how much you should prewind. If you let go too soon you won’t jump far enough, and if you let go too late you’ll jump too far. Add heightissues so you’ll make it far enough, but too high and thus loose too much speed, and you have a problem. And this is just jumping. Want to add tricks into this as well? By now you should be airborne, so it’s time to think about the landing. Hardly any tracks have great jumps that continue straight forward, so you need to shift your weight quite a bit to adjust your bike or ATV according to the surface where you are about to land. Land with too much weight on the front or real wheel, and you are gonna crash. Land uphill, and you will loose a lot of speed. (even if you don’t crash). And what if you are facing a corner? On countless occasions I’ve landed at a 45 degree angle and just barely made it through the corner without flying off the track, especially on the later tracks. And that’s just jumping alone.
I could go on and on and on about the various gameplay elements like the excellent Waypoint race and the superb rubberband difficulty, but if I did I would never be finished. This game simply has tons of things to do, and I haven’t even started on all the unlockables. (If you want to unlock things, this game will satisfy even you. Trust me.) And you might have noticed I haven’t mentioned the looks, sound and all that, but the reason is so simple as I don’t bother. It looks and sounds as good as the rest, and that should be enough to know. If you like ATV’s or MX’s, get this game. It really is that good. Like Van Halen so nicely put it, “I want the best of both worlds!”
There are issues, though. Not many, but there are some. The manual mention you need to keep an eye out for shadows coming from behind, since it’s not that fun to have an ATV land on your head. This is a problem in the game. The bikes and ATV’s jump high, and they come crashing down hard. Several times, the opponents just run me over from behind, making me crawl in the mud. They simply ignore me. But hey, so does the cars in Gran Turismo 4 as well, so I guess that’s a general issue with all racing games.
Overal: 9/10
Bottom line: I bothered to write thsi review just for you guys and gals just to tell you how great this game is, and that should count for something. 8)
