ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 Review

By Gary Kearney

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...) ]

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.

ATV 2 has lots of little details that add up for me. Things like mud splashing on your rider, environments that are imaginative, the sun getting in your eyes as you come over a hill, the drastic difference in lighting when entering into a cave, whiteouts in the snow, the color of a watery section of mud, and rain splashing effects on the camera. While some of these may just be gimmicky, I thought that they worked well in this case. The different terrains do make the vehicles handle differently and you will need to adjust your driving accordingly. For example, don’t expect to be able to maintain the same speed when crossing water or to have the same traction when in mud. The differences are at times maybe a little too dramatic, but they come across well enough. I also like the way other riders affect you. During a race it’s not uncommon for a rider to cut you off, or you to cut them off, and have your ATVs touch. Sometimes the reaction isn’t too bad but if the bump hits you in the direction you’re already going, it’s possible that you’ll end up flying off course. Most of the time I thought that the resulting crash was well deserved on my part and didn’t come across as cheap. Heck, I was trying to cut the dude off so I kind of deserved to go tumbling! But if you thought it was unfair, you can always get back at the rider next time you meet by kicking them off their ATV. What goes around comes around!

ATV 2 is full of tricks like many extreme games. As mentioned earlier, the better you do in races the more tricks you will learn. You start of with some “simple” tricks such as Superman, the Can Can and later you’ll do doing things like a Handstand or a Reverse Spin. These are usually achieved by different combos using the Control Stick and a certain combo of buttons. (A word of advice here. I’m not a huge fan of reading manuals…maybe it’s a guy thing. Anyway it took me a while to realize that in order to pull off even the most basic trick involving the Control Stick it’s very important to just “flick” the stick and release. I found that out by reading the manual. Go figure!) The tricks are not anything special and it would have been nice to see something different. Every extreme game out there has the “Superman” move or the “Handstand”, can’t they come up with something new? You can do these tricks during a race, but the best place to display you talents is in the arena. Basically this is just like it sounds. You can go to one of two arenas where you try to pull off as many tricks as possible in either a limited amount of time or you can go with no time limit. The arena is very Tony-Hawkish where you try to get the most amount of points and you can get multipliers for doing combos. It’s much easier to do some of the crazier tricks here where you don’t have to worry about some other psycho rider knocking you off of your ride!

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 80%.  ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 is a fun game that may not be the most original thing in the world but is a decent buy at the $29.99 price.