Developer
Climax

Released: January 21, 2003
Genre: Racing
Players: 4
ESRB: Everyone

6
8
7
8
7.5

Supported Features:

Now AKA Acclaim is back with their sequel, ATV Quad Power Racing 2. I never had the opportunity to the play the original QPR, but I have been playing the PS2 version of this same game nearly non-stop for the past week. Since QPR2 really has no competition on the Xbox I decided to see how the Xbox version compared to it's PS2 cousin. These are covered in greater detail in my VERSUS review.

Let’s breakdown the features for QPR2 on the Xbox:

• Ride as 10 of the top professional riders from all over the world including Dana Creech, Kory Ellis, Tim Farr and others plus 10 stylized characters to get the best of both worlds.
• Featuring 15 massive tracks in 5 different globe-spanning environments plus two packed freestyle arenas to show off your wild side.
• Fight your way to the finish with kick attacks that teach your competitors not to even think about passing you.
• Over-the-top control system and physics model give you the power pull huge air and ridiculously fun power slides.
• 20+ freestyle tricks letting you express your wild side while tearing past the competition.
• 4-person multiplayer mode lets you rip it up with your friends without the hassle of leaving the house.
• Real-life sponsors make ATV Quad Power Racing 2 the most realistic licensed ATV game ever.
• In-game Dolby Digital support

Let’s discuss preloading for a minute. In real life you preload by shifting your weight back on the rear springs then lift up at the top edge of a ramp for some extra air. It’s a fairly intuitive concept and handled quite well in both of the Offroad Fury games where you preload by simply pulling back on the analog stick. In QPR2 this function is assigned to the right trigger that you pull and hold as you start up the ramp and release at the top. It works, but it never feels quite right and it certainly doesn’t respond fast enough on lengthy stretches of moguls where proper preloading and speed is essential to fast laps.

The other major part of this title is the stunts, more than 20 that you can chain together for points and boost energy. Again, I am quite disappointed in the control scheme for this trick system; not the actual controls themselves but their responsiveness. First of all, you are “supposed” to be able to use either the D-pad or left stick to control your rider and do the various stunts. I found it nearly impossible to do even the easiest of stunts using the analog stick. The trick will not register unless the stick is in the furthest possible position in any direction, so you are literally forced to use the D-pad for stunts. But using the digital controls for steering doesn’t allow for a gradual range of movement, so you are force to constantly swap between the stick for steering and the D-pad for tricks. At least the positioning of the D-pad on the Xbox controller makes this an easier task than it was on the PS2.

Another major problem with the trick system is a very noticeable lack of response time, almost a preprogrammed delay from the time I input a trick to the time I see it performed. It totally throws off your timing and will have you wiping out more than you should. I will leave a ramp and press Down+Square and nothing happens, so I press it again really quick and now my guy does two “Superman Seat Grabs” (or whatever that combo does), but I only had enough air to squeeze in one trick so I eat dirt. In the end, I lost all confidence to even attempt tricks unless it was a huge jump with major airtime.

While QPR2 is rife with flaws, let’s talk about some of the good stuff – yes there is plenty. First of all we have all the typical modes you expect to find including Career, Arcade, Challenge, Single Race, Arcade, Time Trial, and more. The Career mode is of course the core of the game and the mode you will need to play to earn points to build-up your rider and win medals to unlock new bikes.

Unlike many racing games that allow you to restart a race if you realize you are sucking and not going to win, QPR2 lets you choose to finish the race or retire and move on to the next, taking a big fat zero in your score. This may turn off the casual arcade racer, but I’m betting most will appreciate the serious tension this inspires. You may have to race several series to earn the points required to advance through the ranks.

Even though the trick system is seriously flawed the tricks themselves look pretty cool and the button commands are simple and easy to learn. Tricks are assigned a level and you can only attempt them when you have a rider that is skilled enough and a bike that is rated with enough airtime. Tricks build on a simple premise of a directional press on the D-pad and one of the face buttons. You start with the B button then move to the X and then the Y then later you can start combining face buttons for highflying, high scoring mega-stunts.

You will quickly realize that stunts are an integral part of this game, even in the racing modes. Sure, doing stunts gradually fills that boost meter, but it also gives you valuable points. This is the first stunt-based game that I know of that actually incorporates your stunt standing score into your final score for each race. Not only are you ranked on your finishing position, but your total stunt points are tallied and ranked against the rest of the field. Bottom line – you can come in first place in every race and still lose the championship if you fail to place in the top rankings for stunts.

QPR2 throws in some minor combat action, your basic side kick move that may or may not send your opponent skidding across the ground. The cool thing here is that not only can you knock your opponent off their ride and gain a valuable lead, any person you unseat nets you all of their current boost energy. The un-cool thing is that their riderless bike will continue ahead and often crash into you sending you into a tree or worse.

As with any racing game, track memorization is critical and the game does a good job of presenting multiple tracks in the same “area” that slightly differ from one another. This keeps you on your toes as you are always trying to remember which variation you are racing on. There are lots of blind turns, tricky jumps, and even a few obscure shortcuts and learning the best route for both speed and stunts is critical to winning the championship.

The Freestyle mode would probably be more fun than the career racing if the trick system worked better. You are placed in a giant ATV stunt arena that Tony Hawk can only dream about. Pipes, ramps, you name it, everything you need to perform amazing tricks and rack up the big points to earn medals and increase your rider’s skills.

There are plenty of nice little touches like dust clouds behind the bikes, and sheets of water that spray from the tires as you ride through puddles or down rivers. Your tires, bike, and rider will get dirty and if you wreck pieces of your ATV will break off. There are even water droplets that hit your screen and trickle down refracting the scenery and distorting your view – the same effect found in Quantum Redshift. What I would have loved to see was actual mud start to collect on the screen and obscure my view. Now that would have been awesome.

There are a few added levels of complexity added to this version that make use of the extra power of the Xbox. For instance; if you hit a crate on the PS2 version it merely tumbles around and gets in your way on the next lap. On the Xbox this crate will break apart and no longer be in your way. Sure it’s trivial, and unless you are playing both versions you may never know, but that’s why I’m here.

The character models and animation are merely average. Their movements are a bit blocky and disjointed so nothing blends together entirely well. There is a noticeable hiccup between each stunt in a combo that can even affect your timing. Riders stick to their ATV fairly well but their crash animations and even a few of the stunts are pretty poor under close scrutiny. I was also disappointed that the riders didn’t vary all that much in appearance. This game is coming from the people who brought us AKA Aggressive Inline and BMX XXX; two games with perhaps the most comprehensive character creation schemes in gaming history.

The menu interface is decent enough with a visual display of the Dual Shock and highlighted buttons for the various tricks. You can also check out your rider stats and cycle through all the bikes – even the ones you haven’t unlocked. Same goes for the trick list. I was annoyed that you cannot bring up the trick list during a race, so make sure you “study” before each race.

The overall framerate is definitely a step up from the PS2 version and the game runs flawlessly, even with all of the extra details, bumping, lighting, etc. Visually speaking, QPR2 doesn’t get any better than on the Xbox.

Admittedly, I was pretty sick of all of the music from having logged a dozen or more hours playing the PS2 version, so I was really looking forward to the Xbox release and racing with custom soundtracks, but alas, my hopes and dreams of original music were quickly squashed when I realized that somebody forgot to include that feature. Come on guys! You had a whole extra week of development time.

Seriously, this is becoming a major problem with studios that release games on multiple formats at the same time. These games are being filtered down to the lowest common denominator and everyone is losing. Every game should be tweaked to use the maximum capabilities of the system you are playing it on. If it takes an extra month people will wait and appreciate the effort. There shouldn’t be a single Xbox game released that doesn’t support a custom soundtrack assuming the genre supports it.

The sound effects are excellent thanks to a great in-game Dolby Digital surround mix that lets you hear when racers are coming up behind you and trying to pass. Engine noise is deafening at times when you are caught in the pack with all the other riders. Aside from engine noise there is little else to hear other than the occasional splash of water or thud as you or another rider gets dumped. Most of the sounds are subdued, but the surround mix lets you enjoy them more clearly than the PS2 version.

I must admit that support for the Xbox Live would have made this game an instant success and driven this score through the roof. As it stands, there is no online support for the other formats of this title and unlike the PS2, there isn’t another ATV game literally sitting on the shelf next to this one that does offer online support. All I can say is that they had better not try and sneak an ATV3 into the market without online support.

If there were another ATV Xbox game competing for your dollar then you might have to think a bit more seriously, but for now, this is a great off-road racing game, and not just because it’s the only one in town.