MX vs. ATV Unleashed: On the Edge
Rainbow Studios' off-road epic is just as good when it goes portable.
Published: April 4, 2006
THQ was very, very smart to pick up Rainbow Studios when they did. The Phoenix-based developer has made a living off a simple model for their games: combine dead-on vehicle physics, ragdoll physics for the riders, and mix the two with level designs that emphasize making both feel as solid as possible. It works, and they've honed this mix to the point where they've adopted a term for it: Rhythm Racing.
This isn't some BS marketing term, though; Rainbow games require that you balance the need for speed with memorization of what jumps require what kind of clutch, pre-loading of the suspension and how you come out of corners. It sounds like a lot to take in, but Rainbow games do -- and what no other off-road racing game I've played can seem to get -- is how to make it all incredibly intuitive. It's racing, with rhythm.
So how does that translate on the notoriously finicky PSP hardware? Surprisingly well, truth be told. The world that developer Tantalus has ported from the PS2 to PSP is entirely intact. This is probably one of the most loaded PSP ports I've ever seen; 50+ levels, four different freestyle modes, motocross/ATV/monster truck/golf kart/etc. vehicles, the whole shebang. It's just... well, it's missing the two biggest things it really needed: a career mode and online play.
The former would have meant that there was a sense of progression in the game. It's there, clearly; you're unlocking stuff as you go, but it's not obvious from the start that you should be plugging through all of these racing and freestyle tracks to unlock all the goodies. A causal glance at the intro menu makes it seem like there's hardly anything to do, which is grossly incorrect.
The latter would have given the game the kind of meat that it has on the consoles, and really, scaling things down to four online players (or even one-on-ones) would have been the perfect thing to put all the crap you unlock not only to good use and serve as bragging rights, but give the game the feeling that it's a truly complete port of the console versions. Nearly everything else is here, and one could argue that the PSP is perhaps the most wanting and deserving home for more games with Infrastructure play out there.
Alas, we're stuck with Ad-Hoc, and while it's nice that there's any sort of multiplayer, that sort of thing is expected in a game like this. Still, even offline, you're given a wealth of off-road options. A more guided, involved system for plowing through the courses would have helped steer someone playing through the game towards where they can go to unlock more of the exotic vehicles, since that's where the game really starts to get interesting, but starting at the top and drilling down will of course land you all the rider rewards and upgrades, and it's great practice.
You'll need the practice, too. MX vs. ATV, more than any other off-road game, rewards you for memorizing when to pop the clutch coming around a sharp corner, when to give it gas, and when to preload -- but it's just as punishing if you get out of the whole Rhythm Racing groove. One of the things the console version of the game offered were short videos that actually explained these basics. If they're in the PSP version, I sure didn't see 'em, and it's a shame because they're really the key to unlocking the more nuanced mechanics that Rainbow has buried under a fairly simple set of controls.
This isn't some BS marketing term, though; Rainbow games require that you balance the need for speed with memorization of what jumps require what kind of clutch, pre-loading of the suspension and how you come out of corners. It sounds like a lot to take in, but Rainbow games do -- and what no other off-road racing game I've played can seem to get -- is how to make it all incredibly intuitive. It's racing, with rhythm.
So how does that translate on the notoriously finicky PSP hardware? Surprisingly well, truth be told. The world that developer Tantalus has ported from the PS2 to PSP is entirely intact. This is probably one of the most loaded PSP ports I've ever seen; 50+ levels, four different freestyle modes, motocross/ATV/monster truck/golf kart/etc. vehicles, the whole shebang. It's just... well, it's missing the two biggest things it really needed: a career mode and online play.
The former would have meant that there was a sense of progression in the game. It's there, clearly; you're unlocking stuff as you go, but it's not obvious from the start that you should be plugging through all of these racing and freestyle tracks to unlock all the goodies. A causal glance at the intro menu makes it seem like there's hardly anything to do, which is grossly incorrect.
The latter would have given the game the kind of meat that it has on the consoles, and really, scaling things down to four online players (or even one-on-ones) would have been the perfect thing to put all the crap you unlock not only to good use and serve as bragging rights, but give the game the feeling that it's a truly complete port of the console versions. Nearly everything else is here, and one could argue that the PSP is perhaps the most wanting and deserving home for more games with Infrastructure play out there.
Alas, we're stuck with Ad-Hoc, and while it's nice that there's any sort of multiplayer, that sort of thing is expected in a game like this. Still, even offline, you're given a wealth of off-road options. A more guided, involved system for plowing through the courses would have helped steer someone playing through the game towards where they can go to unlock more of the exotic vehicles, since that's where the game really starts to get interesting, but starting at the top and drilling down will of course land you all the rider rewards and upgrades, and it's great practice.
You'll need the practice, too. MX vs. ATV, more than any other off-road game, rewards you for memorizing when to pop the clutch coming around a sharp corner, when to give it gas, and when to preload -- but it's just as punishing if you get out of the whole Rhythm Racing groove. One of the things the console version of the game offered were short videos that actually explained these basics. If they're in the PSP version, I sure didn't see 'em, and it's a shame because they're really the key to unlocking the more nuanced mechanics that Rainbow has buried under a fairly simple set of controls.
