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What are the odds that two motocross games with similar names are released so close?
Well, I never had the chance to play MX Unleashed, but after playing MTX: Mototrax from former Nintendo second-party and Excitebike 64 developer: Left Field, I’m not sure if I’m missing out on much.
MTX: Mototrax includes different racing circuits for indoor supercross or outdoor motocross. Basically, the story is about a new guy on a new team. You need to make a name from yourself and to do so you’ll need to race well and pull off neat tricks. The interface is made through a nice PDA-style system in which you receive new emails alerting you of your progress. Here you can also buy new gear to show off your success. Along the way you can earn yourself some sponsors that will give you much cash and allow you to pick from more clothes.
The game’s career mode isn’t just limited to supercross and motocross, though. There are also free run and freestyle modes. Free run borrows freely from Activision’s own Tony Hawk franchise in which you ride around until you want to talk someone who will give you a challenge. There are a number of minimal tasks to accomplish to advance through the mode’s four courses. You don’t need to complete all of them to move on and you can actually gain some advancement points from pulling off tricks. In the Freestyle mode, you’ll have to accomplish specific goals like passing through some hoops. This mode is not for everyone, but hey, it gets the job done.
The racing is definitely a focus of MTX: Mototrax, so you’ll appreciate that the tracks are well designed. They all feature a little something that makes them stand out, so it is probably a good idea to practice them before attempting to race. The AI of the other racers isn’t bad and there is usually a few racers that really push you as you try to earn that coveted first place slot.
This is all great but Mototrax’s coolest feature is the trick something. All the Activision sports titles feature innovative trick systems and this is no different. You are rewarded for pulling off tricks successfully but if you pull off two different tricks in succession as in without bailing; you’ll earn even more points. If you can keep on pulling off tricks without repeating them, you’ll earn a whole lot of points.
When you are confident enough with your skills, you can take your game online adding near infinite replay value to the game. Playing online is very simple and Activision has made the whole process very user-friendly.
The visuals in the game are awesome. The tracks and characters are very detailed and smoothly animated. What makes the visuals even better though is that the Left Field was able to make it a steady 60 frames per seconds as you race. It’ll dip sometimes when you’re at the top of a jump and viewing a lot of the course but when actually racing, it will never slip. That makes the game very smooth.
The soundtrack is made of fitting punk rock like Slipknot. There are a lot of older, less known bands included but all the songs are fitting. If you don’t like a particular song you can always take it out of the playlist. The sound effects do an accurate job of showing off the various bikes and the sounds they make when they crash.
MTX: Mototrax is a fun racing game with plenty of thrills, a great sense of speed, and loads of stuff to do. If you’ve been waiting for a good bike racer, you’ll find lots of thrills with this one. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Apr 15, 2004
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