Gaming Target - GameCube: ATV Quad Power Racing 2

Written by Tim McGrew on March 03, 2003

Full Review: Zoom zoom zoom...

Racing games today are about a dime a dozen and range from realistic sports cars to F1 racers and stock cars. And then there are high flying races with assorted aircraft. And aquatic events with jet skis and speed boats. Of course you then head back to land on dirt bikes and All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). BY far the most exploited racing area is the automobile, but there are still fans for the other racers and in that capacity, Nintendo has seen better days. With the exception of NASCAR Dirt to Daytona and Waverace: Blue Storm, it's actually difficult finding a racing game that is truly unique and original on the Gamecube in any capacity. Enter ATV Quad Power Racing 2 from the UK based Climax Entertainment, a port of the Playstation 2 release.

Getting right down to it, ATV is a very simple racing game where you take your ATV through a number of modes and try to finish at the top in each one. The basics of the game never stray much further from that and although racing enthusiasts or ATV lovers in general may find that disappointing, it's actually one of the game's charms. Its simplicity leaves itself open to any player that wishes to take a crack at it and run a few laps. Picking up the controller is probably the most difficult thing to do in this game. However, since the game is grounded in simplicity, there's no true replay value present which can cause players the frustration of looking for some other reason to play after quickly drilling through the career mode.

Afforded to the players at the start of the game is the ability to start a career mode, a single race, a standard arcade mode, freestyle, challenge, and time trial. The latter three are basically trick modes separated from the games former bread and butter racing fare. The races are basically a few laps around a pre set course, but some of the more interesting features become apparent such as the rider's ability to perform tricks. As you approach a hill or a bump in the road, player's can hold down the preload button which basically prepares your rider to perform a jump and if executed properly, your rider will launch into the air and you can perform a number of tricks. Performing tricks builds up a turbo meter and awards your rider with speed boosts. Although this sounds like a fundamental part of the game, it's hardly necessary. Most races can be beaten without performing a single jump or a single aerial trick thanks to the games very simple AI. Another point that downplays the trick system is that the game doesn't even supply the players with very many tricks to choose from. Perhaps if the game expanded on this system and beefed up the difficulty, there might be something here to truly intrigue players to continue through the career and arcade modes. As it is, simply holding down the accelerator and properly negotiating turns are the only skills necessary to riding right into first place. Although advancing through the career mode unlocks tracks and vehicles, there are not many reasons to want to go back and use these new unlocked items since they're all aesthetically similar to previous tracks and quads.

One of the more interesting gameplay facets lies within the challenge mode which is split into two categories Ц Ground Challenges and Tower Challenges. Tower Challenges take place high above the earth on platforms that are interconnected with bridges where the chief goal is to basically follow through with the course without falling. Of course, there's always that ever present time limit that pushes you to hurry through the course. The Ground Challenges are similar to Tower Challenges, only they test your driving skill with obstacles such as huge jumps and varied terrain. Despite all this, the time spent in the mode will be short lived since most players will be able to attain each goal easily after a couple of tries, showing yet another glaring example of the games simplicity.

When it comes to graphics for racing games, there's a tendency for developers to divide the engine into two parts, the tracks and the vehicles. When divided, most developers tend to focus on one of the two aspects making extraordinary tracks or extraordinary vehicles, but rarely are the two meshed together in a perfect synthesis. ATV Quad Power Racing 2 has some of the best tracks ranging a number of different locales from forests to beaches to swamps and through dirt tracks. There are fifteen tracks in all and each one sports great looking textures and excellent design. However, given the high detail and the obvious large amount of time spent on the tracks, the developers slacked off on the riders themselves. The drivers are comprised of a very low polygon count, muddy textures that hearken back to the days of the Nintendo 64, and animations that are very choppy and poorly rendered. Animating a quad and a driver must be far more difficult than animating the body of a stock car, but there have been far better models in previous games released on other consoles and these characters and vehicles are disappointing.

Aside from the look of the environment and the drivers, Quad Power Racing 2 also features a fairly smooth framerate, a crucial element in any racing game. It does stutter in a few instances, but it's never a random occurrence like in Hot Wheels Velocity X. For the most part, if you stay ahead of the pack of racers and burn straight through the courses, you'll never come across any slowdown at all since the chief proponent of the slowdown in the game is the other drivers.

On top of the graphics, Quad Power Racing 2 has a fully licensed soundtrack. For the most part, they're fairly recognizable tracks and bands, but what's bad about this is that it becomes a love hate relationship since they're mostly rock tracks featuring heavy guitar. What's even worse is that these fully licensed tracks top out at about seven songs. Unfortunately, they constantly repeat and become very boring after about the tenth race in career mode. You can always turn the music off and pop a CD into your own music player or turn on the radio and that might detract from some of the monotony of the rest of the sounds in the game.