The main campaign mode presents a range of events, which when completed unlock new events and tracks, and earn you cash to buy additional vehicles. There are straightforward cross-country races, timed checkpoint runs, stunt competitions where multiple tricks have to be pulled off, circuit races, and stadium super-cross races with dizzyingly high jumps.
Most of the time your opponents will be on the same vehicle as yourself; it's only the “omni-cross” events which have a dangerously mixed field. If you're on a bike in these, you've got to be very careful of the supercharged sports trucks which throw their considerable weight around in the corners. As the title of the game suggests, you'll certainly need good reflexes to avoid becoming truly at one with the road (in a hedgehog sense of the phrase).
In fact, the “Reflex” subtitle actually refers to the control system whereby the right analogue stick is mapped to your rider's body. While the left stick is used to steer, pushing on the right stick leans your body left or right, forwards or backwards. The vertical axis is used during jumps to adjust your alignment for landing, or to pull back on take-off to gain more height. The horizontal is used for cornering; leaning left into a tight left hairpin will let you swing round it more speedily.
It's not a particularly intuitive system to begin with, though. Initially we found we were pushing forwards and backwards on the left analogue stick to try to adjust our position in mid-air, rather than using the right stick. Given a few hours, however, you'll get the general gist of it. Well, either that or you can just drive the buggies and trucks which don't use the reflex system. Leaning forward in your seat won't do much in a mammoth sports truck, except perhaps allow you to break wind silently. Which is a bit redundant when there's an 800 horsepower V8 engine roaring just behind you, anyway.
The problem with the trucks, however, is that they're way too easy to drive. Even cranking the skill level up to “all-time” (the maximum level, above professional), we easily won races, as the trucks cruise over even rough terrain pretty effortlessly. They have rather spongy handling, true enough, but once we quickly acclimatised to their cornering behaviour, winning became a trivial matter. If you crave a challenge, stick to the bikes and quads.
These little babies feel every nuance in the terrain, and you've got to be careful where you drive, which bumps you hit, and most importantly when you accelerate. Blipping the throttle at the wrong moment can be disastrous, although the reflex control system does have an extra trick up its sleeve when things are going pear-shaped. If you make a slightly dodgy landing and are about to fall off, an arrow flashes up on the screen; jab the right analogue stick in the corresponding direction and you'll save yourself from hitting the dirt. If you're quick enough, that is.
Despite this lifeline, the bikes in the super-cross, with its huge stadium jumps, can be pretty tricky to handle. The manner in which careful speed and timed bursts of acceleration are key to getting good lap times is certainly very different. MX vs ATV isn't about pelting around with the throttle constantly revving to the max, rather the successful rider gets into the rhythm of the jumps. This is novel, and feels realistic, but unfortunately we felt the bike simulation side was let down by over-twitchy steering.
Even if the steering sensitivity is turned down, the motorbike still seems twitchy and it's quite easy to hit a jump slightly off-line, which means more often than not you're into the hay bales at the side of the track. Wipe-outs are also quite common from other bikes hitting you; the CPU riders seem borderline psychopathic, and certainly have no concept of braking to avoid another bike. All this added up to really try our patience at times, as we restarted a race over, and over, and over, and over, as we were sabotaged again and again by the sensitive controls and maniacal computer racers.
Our preferred events were definitely the sprawling cross-country races, with some impressive inclines that were entertaining to tackle, and the stunt competitions. The latter require the player to hit big ramps, grab some serious air, hold the left bumper and wiggle the right stick to perform various aerial acrobatics. It's easy enough to pick up, yet challenging to master chains of multiple tricks. The judges also mark a rider on other elements of driving skill, such as the flow of a routine - the route taken around the various ramps - so a little planning goes a long way.
Another point of interest is that MX vs ATV features terrain deformation, meaning that when you slew around a corner spinning in the mud, you'll cut a big groove. This isn't just a visual effect, either, since if you take the same line on the next lap, you'll get bogged down in the same groove. It's a clever touch, but in practice it doesn't have as much of an effect on a race as you might think. There's also a potential downside in that the track textures are sometimes drawn in very late, almost appearing right underneath you. And we may be wrong, but we'd wager this might be something to do with the deformation visuals. It seems to be most noticeable in muddy terrain, anyway.
While we undeniably got some enjoyment out of MX vs ATV, we were never that happy with the controls. The bikes are just a bit too twitchy, and the solid trucks are the other extreme, far too easily mastered. The campaign is also simplistic, with just a basic progression of events to unlock, and little to spend your money on. It's pretty easy to earn the readies to purchase the vehicles you want early on, and then there's nothing much else to aim for. Unless you count a new helmet. And we don't, although the green and black one does look cool.
It's not a particularly intuitive system to begin with, though. Initially we found we were pushing forwards and backwards on the left analogue stick to try to adjust our position in mid-air, rather than using the right stick. Given a few hours, however, you'll get the general gist of it. Well, either that or you can just drive the buggies and trucks which don't use the reflex system. Leaning forward in your seat won't do much in a mammoth sports truck, except perhaps allow you to break wind silently. Which is a bit redundant when there's an 800 horsepower V8 engine roaring just behind you, anyway.
The problem with the trucks, however, is that they're way too easy to drive. Even cranking the skill level up to “all-time” (the maximum level, above professional), we easily won races, as the trucks cruise over even rough terrain pretty effortlessly. They have rather spongy handling, true enough, but once we quickly acclimatised to their cornering behaviour, winning became a trivial matter. If you crave a challenge, stick to the bikes and quads.
These little babies feel every nuance in the terrain, and you've got to be careful where you drive, which bumps you hit, and most importantly when you accelerate. Blipping the throttle at the wrong moment can be disastrous, although the reflex control system does have an extra trick up its sleeve when things are going pear-shaped. If you make a slightly dodgy landing and are about to fall off, an arrow flashes up on the screen; jab the right analogue stick in the corresponding direction and you'll save yourself from hitting the dirt. If you're quick enough, that is.
Despite this lifeline, the bikes in the super-cross, with its huge stadium jumps, can be pretty tricky to handle. The manner in which careful speed and timed bursts of acceleration are key to getting good lap times is certainly very different. MX vs ATV isn't about pelting around with the throttle constantly revving to the max, rather the successful rider gets into the rhythm of the jumps. This is novel, and feels realistic, but unfortunately we felt the bike simulation side was let down by over-twitchy steering.
Even if the steering sensitivity is turned down, the motorbike still seems twitchy and it's quite easy to hit a jump slightly off-line, which means more often than not you're into the hay bales at the side of the track. Wipe-outs are also quite common from other bikes hitting you; the CPU riders seem borderline psychopathic, and certainly have no concept of braking to avoid another bike. All this added up to really try our patience at times, as we restarted a race over, and over, and over, and over, as we were sabotaged again and again by the sensitive controls and maniacal computer racers.
Our preferred events were definitely the sprawling cross-country races, with some impressive inclines that were entertaining to tackle, and the stunt competitions. The latter require the player to hit big ramps, grab some serious air, hold the left bumper and wiggle the right stick to perform various aerial acrobatics. It's easy enough to pick up, yet challenging to master chains of multiple tricks. The judges also mark a rider on other elements of driving skill, such as the flow of a routine - the route taken around the various ramps - so a little planning goes a long way.
Another point of interest is that MX vs ATV features terrain deformation, meaning that when you slew around a corner spinning in the mud, you'll cut a big groove. This isn't just a visual effect, either, since if you take the same line on the next lap, you'll get bogged down in the same groove. It's a clever touch, but in practice it doesn't have as much of an effect on a race as you might think. There's also a potential downside in that the track textures are sometimes drawn in very late, almost appearing right underneath you. And we may be wrong, but we'd wager this might be something to do with the deformation visuals. It seems to be most noticeable in muddy terrain, anyway.
While we undeniably got some enjoyment out of MX vs ATV, we were never that happy with the controls. The bikes are just a bit too twitchy, and the solid trucks are the other extreme, far too easily mastered. The campaign is also simplistic, with just a basic progression of events to unlock, and little to spend your money on. It's pretty easy to earn the readies to purchase the vehicles you want early on, and then there's nothing much else to aim for. Unless you count a new helmet. And we don't, although the green and black one does look cool.
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