MX Unleashed
Eat dirt and take to the air in THQ latest two-wheeled racer
Tags: MX Unleashed Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on May 4th, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| MX Unleashed (title page) | 1-2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Racing | No | ||
MX Unleashed is the latest in a long line of motocross games from THQ. The publisher understands the genre well having used the Ricky Carmichael name on a few games. With the acquisition of Rainbow Studios, it made sense for the publisher to move the MX franchise from Pacific Coast Power & Light since there is now an in-house developer that specializes in off road racing games.
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The first thing longtime players will notice in the new installment is that the “feel” of the bike is different. The game rides a bit more realistic, more “sim” like from previous games. The added clutch brings a new level of play to the franchise that has been needed for a while.
There are two primary sections in MX Unleashed – Freestyle and Supercross. Both are featured in the Career mode, where the player attempts to become the top rider. Starting out as #100, riding through the various events the goal is to place #1 in each of the 14 different racing leagues and various freestyle events.
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These are about as standard as one would expect in a two-wheeled racing game. What one doesn’t expect however is to have to race a helicopter and biplane. By beating some other vehicles, monster truck, dune buggy and trophy truck (for a total of five) they each become available to ride in Freestyle Mode.
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There is a good selection of tracks with a nice variety. As play progresses and points earned (through performance on the tracks) points can be used to purchase items such as tracks and vehicles.
The graphics have been bumped up from last year’s offering with a new graphics engine. The riders and bikes have independent animations, and when the rider does fall off (*gasp* how could that happen) the new rag doll physics makes for some very painful looking drops. The tracks all look good, but don’t receive the same graphical bump the animations do. The graphics are improved, but still don’t take advantage of the Xbox’s hardware. The series has always looked like a PS2 game on the Xbox, and this year’s game no different.
The audio is also good – I don’t remember the sound effects being quite this good in the previous MX games. The bikes sound realistic but at times a bit too loud.
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What makes MX Unleashed really stand out in the audio department is the soundtrack – and not just the songs featured in the game (which are appropriately adrenaline fueling). MX Unleashed will mix songs from custom soundtracks on the Xbox hard drive into the game’s soundtrack – a feature that more games should use.
While the tweaks to the graphics and audio are good, it really comes down to the races and tricks. The courses for the races are fine, but when learning how to handle the bike, a training section is necessary. Unfortunately the Training Mode offered here is video only, no interactivity, no opportunity for the player to try out the moves.
One of the biggest things that the racer will learn is how to “pre-load” the suspension to tackle the jumps. The game’s newly redesigned AI will almost always know where to get the big air in order to avoid wasting time going up and down the various small hills that will litter a course. While coming in second or third is good, it won’t get the player to the ultimate goal of becoming the #1 rider.
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The trick system is customizable in MX Unleashed – 24 tricks can be mapped out and stored to be used. It would have been nice to have access to all the various tricks, particularly on some of the freestyle courses, but the combo system of linking tricks definitely racks up the major point totals.
MX Unleashed is a step up from the last three entries in the MX franchise. Unfortunately, some things are still missing. Online play is perhaps the biggest item missing. A track editor would have been nice as well. What could (and should) have been a great racing game suffers from a feeling of “sameness” to the previous installments. Yes, it’s improved, but it is the same basic game that we’ve been playing for the last three years.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Soundtrack + Better riding physics |
7.4 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Same game as the last few but with better physics | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This is the fourth MX game from THQ I have played. I was hoping for something new, and evolution to the franchise. What we got instead was the same game, just better. Not good enough. | |
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Tags: MX Unleashed
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on May 4th, 2004 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
