Worst Off-Road Racing game of all time! Period!
Platform: PSP
Release Date: April 19, 2005 (NA) November 10, 2006
Developers: Climax Racing
Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment (NA) SouthPeak Interactive (EU)
Story (-/10): There's no story in this game. It's just your basic Off-Road Racing game like Excitebike 64, ATV Off-Road Fury 1-3, Motorstorm, etc.
Gameplay (1/10): There is nothing good about the gameplay, everything is broken! Here are the major issues with this awful game. The first problem with this game is the ATV's themselves. The ATV's display different speed stats, but in the actual game they all run the same. Another complaint I have with this game is the AI. This is rubber band AI, no matter how good you do in a race or how far you are from your opponents, they will always catch up to you no matter what ATV they use. Sometimes landing and crashing is a joke because the collision detection in this game is abysmal. You can barely tap a hay-bale or a wall going probably 5-10 MPH and the driver will just throw himself off like it was that serious of an impact. And you want to know the worst part about it? They take an ice age to get back on their ATV. Another thing I hate about this is sometimes the AI can crash into you and you fall off, not them. You can sometimes land perfectly on the ground and you'll still crash. Pulling off stunts is pretty clunky as well. Why I say this is because if you mash the buttons like crazy it's like they will keep doing stunts. The biggest problem with the AI is wen they perform stunts they can land it without falling off their ATV, sometimes they can even still be doing these stunts after landing. When I tried that, I just fell off and crashed. Now here's the icing on the cake: The load times. I know that this is a CD based game and they all take a while to load, no, this game takes over a minute to load. That's intolerable! I'm sure you'd all compare this game to Sonic 06's load times, that game takes about 20 seconds to load, maybe even longer. Well at least I'd give this game's load times the benefit of the doubt, at least the load times aren't as bad as Midnight Club 3's where it takes about 1-2 minutes to load.
Graphics and Music (4/10): The graphics are pretty sub-par for a PSP game, even though it reminds me of an early PS2 game. As for the music, the soundtrack in the game is hit or miss.
Replay Value: VERY LOW: I have absolutely no reason to play this abomination ever again. Let's just leave it at that, Alright?
Overall: ATV: Blazin' Trails for the PSP is, without a doubt, the worst Off-Road Racing game I have ever played in my life. It's a candidate for being the worst game I have ever played, hell, it might be. If it weren't for the clunky gameplay, rubber band AI, broken collision detection, intolerable load times, or the hit or miss soundtrack, then maybe this game would have been good. Avoid this game at all costs! Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't even look at it! If you want to play a real Off road-racing game, play ATV: Offroad Fury 1-3, Quad Power Racing, Motorstorm, or even Excitebike 64!
With my Sonic the Hedgehog Rating system, I give ATV:Blazin' Trails for the PSP an 'E'!