Previous | Image 1 of 10 | Next

2XL ATV Off Road (iPhone + iPod Touch) 1

ATV Off Road is a quad racer in the same style as 2XL's previous game Supercross, carrying with it the same quality and and quantity of game to justify it's current £4.99 price point.

The game splits itself in to two principle areas; Career Mode and Arcade mode.  Career mode see's you competing in 11 events spanning stadium based supercross races, outdoor motocross races and freestyle events based on performing stunts to accumulate as many points as possible in time allowed.  Once a race and event is complete you can't re-run it, giving each race that little more importance and pressure than if you can simply redo it afterwards.  It also means taking time out to practice in the Arcade mode is actually useful.  Arcade mode offers 2 freestlye, 8 motocross and 8 supercross tracks offering timetrial, practice and race options.  The motocross events take place across a range or forest, alpine, mountain and desert locations, all excellently presented and loads of fun to race in while the supercross events take place in stadiums with huge crowds.  Freestyle levels, by virtue of lacking structure or direction can be confusing leaving the player unsure what to do or how to do it, but after a few practices these become a pleasant break from the races and an enjoyable part of the overall game.

There is also a multiplayer feature that currently works over a shared wi-fi connection, allowing you to compete against other players on your wi-fi connection if you both have the game.  This is expected to be extended to allow for bluetooth multiplayer soon.

Controls are intuitive and as you would expect for an iPhone/iPod Touch use the motion sensitive features – tilt left to right to turn and backwards and forwards to adjust the angle of the quad for landing and to pull off somersaults and wheelies.  There are 6 stunt buttons positioned 3 on the far left and 3 on the far right of the screen and the throttle/brake are controlled via buttons in the bottom right.  The controls are excellent, if I had a complain it would be that the throttle and brake are too close together and your finger can slip from one to the other accidentally (though with the auto throttle on this wouldn't be an issue) and the controls can be made slightly more awkward to use if you have a cover on your iPhone/iPod Touch, because the controls are so close to the edge of the screen.

The stunts are a fairly major part of the game and as well as somersaults there are 6 different tricks available.  They are mainly used during the freestyle rounds but, also available during the races, they can add an added element of excitement, skill and style.  As you'll spend a large proportion of your time off the ground and taking off from jumps, there's plenty of opportunities to use them.

An issue with all driving games is that of accessibility and how easy it is to just pick up and play and for newbies to enjoy. In easy mode you effectively have a faster quad bike than your competitors so if you point it in the right direction and do the basics right you will at least be competitive and should be winning races by half way through a career.  This makes for a fairly comfortable learning curve and intro to the game, setting you up for a Medium and Hard career.  Other features built in to make this game accessible are an auto throttle and brake assist option, customisable steering sensitivity and perhaps most importantly you can tap your current position and it will instantly put you back in the middle of the track, so no matter how much you throw yourself off your quad or take a wrong turning you can get back on the track and stay competitive. It's also reassuring to see competitors fall off their quads every now and then!

If you want to see how good the graphics can be on an iPhone/iPod Touch, get this game.  They are excellent, from the courses, the bike, the character, the textures of the track to the animation of the driving and the stunts.  The attention to detail is very good and quite simply offer the best graphics I've seen on this platform.

As a high quality app it contains all of the attention to detail and depth that you would expect and there's little, if anything to pick up on as room for improvement.  I have found that ATV Offroad eats up battery life quicker than nearly any other game I've played, which is only a problem if you're away from a charger for a long time but nevertheless if you need to have your phone or iPod Touch available for a prologued period, rattling out a few races on this is probably a bad idea.  Although I don't know how or if this would be possible, a mini map or directional indicators would be appreciated, especially if you're a newcomer to the game because the tracks can on occasion be hard to follow. Perhaps an on/off option for directional help would be useful.  During some career races I found some individual races to be a bit too long and taking up a bit too much time to fit into a short commute or waiting period.  This primarily becomes an issue if you have to exit the app mid-race because you can't pick this up again half way through, you have to start the race again.  On more than one occasion I received a call or needed to exit the app 3 / 4 of the way through a 10-15 minute race (10 laps at 1 min 30 secs a lap) meaning I then had to redo all of this race.  Despite these niggles, most of which I expect can be fixed via future updates, ATV Offroad is enjoyable, loads of fun and carries the depth and level of challenges to have a long lifespan.

There is 4-5 hours worth of play per career mode that you compete in, that's 12-15 if you run it through on Easy, Medium and Hard once.  Re-running career mode and multiple options in arcade mode make this a permanent app that you'll be able to come back to time and time again.  There is also an inbuilt achievement system with 10,000 points to be accumulated, again adding to the lifespan and challenge of the game.

This isn't a cheapie app and you get what you pay for on this occasion.  There is more substance, challenge, variety, quality and longevity here than I've seen in any other app to date.  This game isn't far from what you would expect to find in a full DS or PSP game that would be priced at 5 or 6 times higher.  It doesn't draw comparison with other App store titles, it draws comparison with dedicated hand-held gaming console titles and face-to-face comes off very well, when you take into account the price it comes out on top.

ATV Offroad comes recommended for all iPhone/iPod gamers.  For an App Store game £4.99 is a relatively high price tag but the confident pricing is justified by the size, quality and presentation of one of the best iPhone/iPod Touch games currently available.

8/10