Ever been riding on an ATV?
It’s a blast. Hopping over hills, sharp cornering, flying through mud … it’s all
part of the overall enjoyment. Akklaim has now attempted to capture the
excitement and feel of ATV racing with it’s newest release into the GBA library,
ATV : Quad Power Racing. This actually started off on the PSX, and now it has
moved onto everyone’s favorite little hand held system.
The controls to ATV are
simple. Use the A button for gas and B button for brake, while the control pad
steers left and right. The first somewhat curious thing I found on this is the
mention of “stunts” in the instruction manual, but there’s no stunt button used
on the GBA. Lo and behold, there were no stunts in the game either other than
leaping off hills even after I tried pressing shoulder buttons and the control
pad up or down. Anyway … let’s move on.
There are two main play
modes in ATV that you can select from. Challenge mode is the main point of the
game, where you race opponents and unlock more ATV’s (9 total) and tracks (10 of
those) to race on in the second mode, Arcade. The Challenge consists of three
actual heats to run in, Stock (Easy), Pro (Medium) and Open (Hard). Each heat
consists of 8 tracks to complete total, except the Open which contains a ninth.
Along the way, power ups can be obtained such as speed boost or better grip to
help you overtake your opponents and win. Each heat adds more laps, and has
faster ATV’s to run with. This all sounds like the beginning of a good, solid
title … but unfortunately there are a couple of reasons why that’s not the case
here.
First off, ATV racing is
still an off – road thing overall, even though it’s not through trees and
through the mountains like commercials on TV. This doesn’t feel like much more
than street racing in an outdoor environment for the most part. You have the
dirt flying from the tires and jumps to leap off here and there, but mostly the
environment seems a little flat and uninspired overall. There’s no obstacles
anywhere unless you stray off the dirt roadway too far to cause a problem, so
you just sort of cruise along stage by stage without much environmental
challenge. Stray into the grass or off to the side of the road a little, and
suddenly your “off road” vehicle slows to a standstill. Even creeping along at
the almost stopped pace will cause your bike to flip if it touches anything else
though, which can be annoying.
Secondly, there’s no one
else there most of the time which makes you feel like it’s more of a free ride
than a race. You are riding along on your own from the start, and suddenly
another rider appears in the distance in front of you. Passing your opponent
makes them apparently drop out of the race altogether after a number of seconds,
since there were times where I would wreck about 8 seconds after passing someone
and they never showed up to present another challenge to me.
The last two things are the
biggest issues that caused me to shake my head about ATV Quad Power Racing
overall. The first was the overall challenge. Even with the faster ATV’s and the
Open Challenge mode, I was still able to breeze through each track the first
time without any problems. Midway through the Open challenge it got a little
more difficult, but by that time I knew my way around since it was the same
areas I’d seen before for the most part. The second one which ties into that is
the length. I’m good at racing titles, and it took me about 2 hours including my
own personal “pit stops” to go through the whole thing. Even if racing isn’t
your main forte, you won’t have much of a problem getting through it in an
afternoon as long as you stay on the road.
The graphics for ATV : Quad
Power Racing look sharp. The 3-D textures, movement, and draw distance are more
in the quality of a Playstation title. The tires throw mud, and the trees,
rocks, and logs look really good. The racers themselves don’t look too bad
either, but get a little pixeled unless they are close up.
Overall, I am sad to say
that this game wasn’t more of what it definitely could have been. Even with the
great graphics and all the fun of ATV racing, the overall gameplay and length
cause it to run out of gas at the finish line. If you’re a fan of ATV racing or
riding, you might get more enjoyment out of this title than others, but I would
still recommend to buy with caution.
Gameplay: 6.0
The overall
control of the ATV’s are simple to learn and get into, but the track design,
game length, and lack of overall challenge hurt this title in the end. Things
like flipping the ATV while almost standing still and getting bounced like a
rubber ball off the track when you run into an opponent don’t help much either,
nor does the uninspired track design. The last two in the challenge series were
more fun than others, though.
Graphics: 8.2
The graphics are
really good for the most part, even for a GBA title, but opponents look somewhat
pixeled if not close by. Environments look really good and contain mud, snow,
dirt, and grass.
Sound: 7.5
The engine and
the sounds of tires slipping on dirt sound decent, and powerups are accompanied
by a voice yelling “You’re on fire!” or “Yeah!”. The music is a little generic
sounding, but not too terribly bad since it only plays at the title screen and
in between tracks.
Difficulty: Easy
Easy to pick up
and get into, but too easy to beat as well. There is no adjustable difficulty
here either to make it more challenging.
Concept: 7.0
Racing titles
have been done in numerous shapes and sizes. This one goes off the street and
into the dirt, which is a neat switch from “the norm”. ATV racing has been done
before in the past however, and this one doesn’t do much more to make it
different.
Overall: 6.2
This seems to be
one of those “could have been” titles for the most part, but the overall issues
far outweighed the good points. Racing or ATV fans will have more things to like
about this game than others, but I would still see if you could check out a
preowned open copy in the store before you make the final decision to buy it or
not.
