MX vs. ATV Unleashed

I went into MX vs. ATV Unleashed expecting a nostalgia exercise and came out genuinely surprised by how much the core loop still pulls you forward. This is Rainbow Studios in their prime, the same team behind Motocross Madness, and the muscle memory they built into the jump physics is still the best argument for firing this up in 2024. The "Rhythm Racing" engine rewards preloading jumps and reading the terrain's natural cadence, meaning a clean run through a supercross track feels earned rather than accidental. Nail the landing angle on the downward slope of a mound and you keep momentum; clip the uphill side and you eat dirt. That cause-and-effect is tighter than a lot of modern off-road racers bother with. The vehicle roster is the game's biggest selling point and its strangest liability simultaneously. MX bikes, ATVs, dune buggies, sand rails, monster trucks, and souped-up golf carts all race against one another across over 50 supercross and outdoor tracks, plus specialized events covering hill climbs, gap jumps, freestyle, waypoint races, and short-track formats. That is a serious amount of content for a single-player campaign. The problem is that the game padded the roster with helicopters and biplanes whose flight controls feel unresponsive and unfinished compared to the ground vehicles. The aerial events come across as a curiosity that nobody asked for, and community consensus after all these years is simply to skip them. Stick to two and four wheels and the game is consistently fun. The trick system in freestyle mode is the other weak spot, since every stunt awards identical point values regardless of difficulty, which drains the skill ceiling from what should be the game's showpiece mode. For single-player depth, the career mode holds up well. Championship series split across ATVs and MX bikes, 16-week race calendars with practice sessions that influence your grid position, and an unlock progression that feeds new vehicles and customization back into the loop at a satisfying rate. The AI puts up a genuine fight without rubber-banding outrageously, though breakaway runs do happen on easier difficulty. The PC-exclusive track editor is a legitimate bonus, capable of producing full supercross and hill-climb layouts, though its interface is clunky enough that most players will treat it as optional rather than central. Community-made tracks from the Steam era do exist and extend the lifespan noticeably. The technical picture is mixed but manageable. Internet multiplayer no longer functions as the original GameSpy infrastructure is long gone, making this effectively a solo or LAN experience. Resolution is capped at 1280x1024, which is a genuine irritant on modern monitors, but community guides on Steam walk you through patches that push the frame rate to 60fps and restore wider resolution support. A gamepad is strongly recommended since keyboard controls work but feel approximate compared to dual analog. Visually the game looks its age without apology, though the dust particles and track surfaces hold a certain functional clarity that actually helps competitive play. The licensed soundtrack, featuring acts like Papa Roach and Ozomatli, fits the mid-2000s dirt-sport vibe perfectly even if it dates the experience immediately. If you grew up with this on PS2 or Xbox, the Steam re-release from THQ Nordic is a clean way to revisit it. If you are coming in fresh, the learning curve on landing mechanics is steeper than the game communicates, and newer entries in the series offer dual-stick controls and proper online infrastructure. But as a window into what peak off-road arcade racing felt like before the genre got cautious, Unleashed is genuinely hard to fault on the fundamentals that matter.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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