Review: ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails - PSP

Only if you MUST have a portable ATV racer

Thursday, April 21, 2005

ATV fans (whoever you are), rejoice! Sony and developer Climax Studios brings all of the mud, dirt and everything else that makes Offroad racing to the PSP with ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails.

Based on the PS2 series of the same name, Blazin' Trails features 30 courses and more than 20 bikes for your rider to tear around on. Courses range from the indoor arenas, complete with the mandatory cheering crowd, to outdoor open trails, hence the name.

The game doesn't skimp on modes either. Supercross deals with arena courses and features tight turns and plenty of jumps. Nationals mode takes place outdoors and contains longer tracks that rely more on straightaways. Enduro takes the same levels found in Nationals and adds a checkpoint system rather than a race to the finish. Finally, Freestyle contains the same arena courses, but instead of race against the computer you attempt to score the most points with tricks before the time runs out. The point of all these modes is simply to get first place in order to unlock additional events and courses.

The main single player draw, however, is Championship mode, which combines all of the previously mentioned events into a "career," which translates into series of races with different goal sets and objectives like getting first place or scoring a certain amount of points through tricks. The game rewards you for accomplishing these goals with credits that can be spent on a variety of things including new racing gear, parts for your ATV, new courses, mini games and even music videos.

Once you've gotten all you can out of the Single Race and Championship modes, there's still online play, available in both network and true online competition. There's a lot of variety and options to this extreme racer, and there needs to be, as two of the PSP's best launch games (Wipeout Pure and Ridge Racer) are also racing games.

A plethora of options doesn't make a game, however, and unfortunately, Blazin' Trails can't keep up with either of them.

Let's begin with the graphics. While this is an amazing looking portable game, if you compare it to other PSP games it just doesn't hold up. Granted, the frame rate's solid and the stunt animations are smooth, but it never feels fast. I know ATVs aren't as fast as regular cars, but part of the fun in a racing game is the sense of speed, and this game has none. The bikes in motion appear grainy, as do the surroundings. On a few occasions racers magically popped up in front of me as well.

Soundwise, the engine noise is far too pronounced, drowning out not only the soundtrack but the noise of the 50,000-plus arena crowd. When you're neck and neck with the three competing drivers, it sounds like you're playing an electric razor.

As I mentioned above, this game is based on the ATV Offroad series for PS2, which means many of the problems found in those games can be found here as well. One of the most frustrating things about the game is how twitchy the bikes handle with either the D pad or the analog stick. Yes, it's an Offroad game, and yes, that entails driving on a slick racing surface, but the same power slide that rocketed you around a hairpin perfectly the first time may well send you into the protective wall the second. The entire experience feels like you're driving on a continuous sheet of ice.

Another annoyance is the oversensitive "Off Track, Go Back" sensor. It pops up whenever you're even close to the guard rails, right in the middle of the screen, obscuring your view of track. While its not as bad on any of the indoor tracks, it dominates the wide open outdoor races. The stunt system is also clunky and poorly implemented. Most of the time (read: unless the game calls for it) you're better off not doing them since they more often than not lead to crashes. Many of the tricks are hard to pull off solely because of the PSP's button layout.

ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails isn't a bad racing game, but it's not a good one, either. If you're a PSP owner and you're jonesin' for a racing game, you might want to look elsewhere, unless you're a big ATV fan. But then again, who isn't?

Graphics: C-

Sound: C-

First Play: B

Last Play: C

Gameplay: C

Overall: 73% C

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