Get ready to don the rider's helmet once again and brace yourself for the immersive and great game that MX Unleashed is.
Before you pick up this game you probably know what you're getting yourself into. You're probably going to spend a lot of hours traversing through each course and completing each racing event, while being able to cruise around on your bike and go freestyle. However that one sentence can't even begin to describe the amount of content that can be found in this game. It's just a shame that many people tend to pass this game on.
MX Unleashed is not a simulation of any kind. The game has been specifically developed so it feels arcade-like while maintaining that slight feature of realism and the feeling of setting up your rider's gear and swapping bikes for optimal racing conditions.
Seeing that this is a motorcycle-themed racing game, it doesn't have a story. The character that you play as is a random dude that is pretty much your avatar. You can customize the gear sets and choose a default bike that you really like and save custom presets. However, the gear sets aren't just one-piece cuts of cloth. You can customize everything about the gear the rider wears, from the helmets and goggles, to the gloves, the top, the bottom, the boots, and even the manufacturer. The colors can be changed as well to certain limits, as there isn't really a color wheel or a color picker, just differently-colored variants of gear. Another feature that is available character-wise is the ability to play as actual professional Motocross motorcyclists, which is pretty neat.
There are quite a few modes that really make this game special. First of all, there's a sort of campaign-like mode, where your character participates in several events, earns credits (sort of like the currency in the game, but I'll get to that later), and moves on to bigger and harder tracks. Vehicles can be unlocked in the campaign mode, and these range from a Dune Buggy, a Monster Truck, and even a helicopter and many others. These vehicles are unlocked by racing through a certain part of the Freestyle course on your bike. These aren't easy, and in many cases, they'll probably be frustrating, because when it's a low-cc bike against a helicopter, you know you'll have to know every nook and cranny around the Freestyle track.
Another mode is the Freestyle mode. Here, you and up to one player can race in wide and expansive tracks. In this mode you can aimlessly ride and experiment with dozens of tricks that can be easily executed (some easier than others), or you can exchange your bike for a vehicle that you have previously unlocked in the campaign mode.
There's also a store in which you can use the credits you have accumulated. Credits can be earned from performing tricks. However, the items in-store available for purchase via your credits don't come cheap. To obtain new tracks, new Freestyle events and vehicles, you'll have to accumulate millions of points. This will take up a lot of your time performing tricks on the Freestyle tracks, however this task is easy, because the tricks are easy to perform due to the tight controls of this game.
Maneuvering your bike around the track and around sharp corners and through natural obstacles is a breeze. The controls handle well and do their job well. The controls are responsive and not too sensitive, and the accurate yet arcade-like physics of this game suit them well most of the time.
The tracks in this game vary from professional tracks inside stadiums to natural areas. The professional tracks contain your standard off-road obstacles like short-and-tall hills that are meant to slow you down, but are also meant to improve your speed around the course. The natural courses consist of many nature-like environments, such as forests or mountains. These courses are beautifully constructed and it isn't hard to see that Rainbow Studios spent a lot of time on them, because the tracks have so much attention to detail that it's easy to get lost in their majestic mountaintops, the evergreen trees, and even the muddiness of a rainy forest.
Visually, the game is well-crafted. The character models are brilliantly rendered and the environments in the Freestyle mode are outstanding. Neat touches are added to each and every Freestyle track to make them unique, such as hot air balloons (which you can crash into) in one track and a train in another. MX Unleashed is clearly a beautiful game, representing the true grittiness of being a Motocross racer.
The music selection in this game really suits the racing mood well. Most of the songs are very upbeat, and while there aren't that many songs to listen to in the game, none of the songs really get repetitive. In case they do, the game gives you the option to customize the settings for the sound, in case you want no music and want to hear the purring engine of your motorcycles - which is perfectly fine, since the sound effects in this game are astonishing. Each and every bike sounds well-suited to their class.
Sadly MX Unleashed has its share of problems. While the game's physics are exceptionally accurate and well-done, it might frustrate you a bit. Sometimes the physics feel too sensitive, and for beginners it takes a long time to get used to, because violently turning left and right sway the rider to insane angles, which may confuse you a lot even though you're a seasoned rider in the game with plenty of experience.
Another problem with the game are the load times. To load the main menu alone takes nearly thirty seconds. Some people may be able to handle waiting that long, though it may put some others off. Loading the tracks takes a long time as well, with nearly the same amount of load time. Sometimes this is manageable and also understandable, because the game has to load a lot of content all the time.
MX Unleashed is a brilliant motorcycle racing game. So much content and fun are abundant in this game, and Rainbow Studios gives you many reasons to come back to play the game again. There are dozens of unlockables to find in this game, which makes the replay value soar through the roof. Although the game has its share of problems, MX Unleashed stands out on its own among the rest as a uniquely-crafted game. Expect many hours to be spent on this game performing tricks and exploring the tracks, and also moving your way up the ranks in the Motocross world.
To this day I still don't own a motorcycle. But that doesn't mean you can't virtually ride one in a video game, right? Right?!