ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 (ATV 2) is the first full-fledged ATV (All Terrain
Vehicle) game for the GameCube (no, you can’t count Smuggler’s Run!) Like any
“extreme” game out today it has some of the best riders of the sport modeled in
the game, in this case Dana Creech, Tim Farr and others. ATV 2 also has the
required big tricks and outrageous gravity defying stunts needed to get the
official “extreme” attitude. While there may not be anything really new here
that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a fun game because, well, it is kind of
fun. Why would I make such a controversial statement? Read on and find out…
[ But first, time for a little side thought here: ATV 2 is one of many games
that are being released for every console out there. I wonder is this is a good
trend. Granted, it’s nice to not feel like you’re getting the short end of the
stick when a new game comes out, but not for the console you own. Yet I wonder if
each version of the game is as good as it could be. That is, are the developers
able to take advantage of the special abilities that each console has to offer?
Or are the games closer to a least common denominator of features? It seems a
little hard to believe that when developing a game simultaneously for three
pretty different platforms that proper time is given to make sure they are
really fully utilizing the power and capabilities of each system. Is this a good
thing? Is it worth the sacrifice to make sure that all consoles gets a least
some version of a game instead of only one system getting an awesome version?
(What are
your thoughts? I'd like to know...) ]
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| Racing on snow and ice. |
ATV 2 has several different game modes including ATV Academy (a tutorial for
learning the controls), Arcade (quick two lap races), Time Trial, Freestyle
(where you go to get your groove on in the Stunt Arena), and Career. The Career
mode is where you take a humble “newbie” of a rider and over a series of races
groom the rider to be the most feared and envied ATV rider in the history of the
world!! Actually the Career mode is fairly standard stuff where the higher you
place in the races the better equipment you unlock and the higher your skill
level grows. You can either create your own custom rider or use one of the
famous world-class ATV riders already there (well, once you unlock them of
course). Naturally you want to do well in the races because the cooler ATVs are
where you can really pull of some wacky-crazy stuff. OK, so there isn’t anything
amazing happening with the different game modes. It is what it is, a competent
collection of different ways to play the game. In addition, there is also a
split-screen two-player option. Climax is not getting any extra credit for
inventing anything original here, but they also haven’t messed anything up by
leaving out any important modes.
There are about 15 different tracks, although a couple are just slightly
different layouts of a previous track. Nevertheless, many of the tracks are very
large and interesting as they cover areas such as a Forest, a Beach, a Glacier,
a Swamp and an Industrial Mine. There are also Stunt Arenas with the needed
ramps, jumps, walls, flaming rings and such. All of the tracks look very nice
and this leads me to a couple of the stronger parts of ATV 2, the graphics and
overall feel and control of the game.
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