Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Acclaim

Price: £39.99 Players: 1-4 A second ATV game from Acclaim, but this is a sequel to the PSX's ATV Quad Power Racing and not the slightly more recent ATV Offroad. However, they're not a world away from each other. Once again, it's a game awash with several game modes, such as Single Race, Freestyle, Time Trial, Arcade, plus Challenge, to unlock Pro Riders, and Career, where tricks equals bonus points, which will get you further on to completing the current championship before you can progress to the next. Finally, the ATV Academy allows you to try a few tricks out and learn to control your vehicle. I particularly enjoyed the 'Tower Challenges' as they're like a very dangerous version of BBC's "Kick Start" and they give a great sense of freedom.

Like the aforementioned ATV Offroad outing, this title continues the great look and feel to the game in terms of the quality and fluidity of the graphics, with the physics still exactly in place as before, but if I had a slight gripe it's in the not-very-convincing water splash effects. What the game has in playability, it does lose out in the sound dept., but then that's the case with most driving/biking games, as you appear to 'fart' around the track, such is the rasping noise of your engine.

Longevity is the only possible problem with this type of game. Try a rental first to see if it's the sort of thing you'll stick with mid-term, rather than just a few days play. For the DVD-style extras, this disc contains trailers for Burnout 2, Legends of Wrestling 2 and All Star Baseball 2004 (what, so soon?)

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.