Mad Riders: PS3 Review

Mad Riders: PS3 Review

Released by Ubisoft
Platform: PS3

Let's face it - we've all wanted to jump on an ATV quad bike and go blatting about without a care in the world, right?

Well, this latest racing title from Ubisoft certainly lets you do that by throwing you straight into the world of ATV racing and expecting you to keep up.

With just the bike and your wits, you're left against others to race away and hopefully win each course, building up points by hurtling through the air, collecting power ups, using the boost and performing a few stunts here and there.

And that's about it.

There are some 40 different races to take part in but there's little variation outside of that - sure, you build up points and experience by improving your position in the races and you also get access to other bikes, but there's little more on offer here than what you'd get in an arcade game simulator. You get to hurtle around tracks but only within the confines of the races - occasionally, hitting boundaries and vegetation stops you right in your tracks as well.

Don't get me wrong - it's graphically sound, playable and colourful but it's just lacking a little something in terms of long term engagement. There's quite the feel of the slog about this too - it takes a wee while to unlock the first alternative ATV bike and it may not seem like enough of a reward given the time you've put in to get enough XP to unlock it. Certainly, the same applies for the tracks too with it taking a lot to unlock each new race course.

Sadly, that hinders the fun of Mad Riders - while it's well presented, fast paced and requires relatively little thought, it does need a level of long term engagement which is out of kilter with what it proffers up in terms of reward.

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