There we were at the county fair, taking in the sights and smells, when the sound of buzzing engines filled my ears. I turned toward the grandstand, and on the other side of the fence, I could see motorcycles flying through the air over dirt hills. As memories of biking through the woods as a child filled my head, I said, "That looks so fun!" Well, as it turns out, Teresa wants me to avoid any combination of motors and two-wheeled vehicles and would prefer I avoid sports that could cause major, well, death. I suppose I should be glad that she wants me around for the foreseeable future, but how do I get my motocross fix? Watching it on TV just isn't the same.

Then I was talking to a neighbor kid one day, and he was raving about MX vs. ATV Unleashed. After trying out his copy, I went and bought my own as soon as possible and found myself the owner of one of the greatest racing games ever made. So two years later, the sequel has found its way into my hands, both PS2 and DS versions. What new ground do they cover, and do they crash? Read on.

Even as I write this, I'm tempted to review the two different versions separately, since they are two very different games, but more in a sense of what they do and don't have than in what they have differently. Simply, you can only squeeze so much onto a DS cartridge, so when it came to development, THQ obviously had to leave much on the cutting room floor.

Game Modes

The DS version features three modes of play, X-Cross Tournament, Stunt Challenge, and Custom Event (Which is just X-Cross or Stunt Challenge with custom settings), plus a multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode requires multiple cartridges, which is always a negative for me in a family of five, because if we want to play with the entire family, the game suddenly gets very expensive. Gameplay in the X-Cross and Stunt modes is identical, the difference being that X-Cross Tournament is won by crossing the finish line first, and stunt challenge requires the best score accumulated by stunts, but unlike the freestyle modes of its PS2 counterpart, you have to stay on the track or get counted out in the stunt mode, so while the strategy is different, it feels like the same game.

The PS2 version, however, offers a huge variety of tracks, which has been one of the great features of this series. In addition to the SuperMoto, Short Track (Missing in Untamed) , Waypoint Races, Hill Climbs, Open Class Racing, Supercross, Freestyle modes, Free Rides, Gap Races, and Championships, Untamed adds OpenCross (Focus on different environments), Free Ride (Search for the hidden sprockets), and a very cool Ski Jump mode--doesn't that sound fun? (Last I checked, riding an ATV off a ski jump will void the warranty.) Vehicle and outfit customization are back in the PS2 version as well. (Yes, guys, you can get new outfits and stickers for your racer, just like a doll action figure.)

While none of the new modes add a drastically different style of gameplay besides the ski jump, I've found that I like the OpenCross and Free Ride modes more than any of the others, although I'm not sure I can explain why.

My biggest complaint about the PS2 game is load time. When you begin a race, feel free to go get a snack while it's loading the track. Seriously. The DS version, using a cartridge instead of a disc, does not suffer from this problem.

The series has also excelled in vehicle control. Offering two different physics models (Race, which is easier, and Pro, which will appeal to realism fans), the vehicles handle just the way you'd expect, sliding on dirt but gripping blacktop, easy for younger gamers to pick up and enjoy but challenging enough for the best bikers.

Vehicles

Both versions, like their predecessor, start you out with your choice of dirt bike or ATV in a limited selection of styles and colors, the DS version allowing you to unlock sand rails and 4x4 golf carts with accumulated points. The PS2 version, in addition to the DS offerings, includes, like Unleashed, trophy trucks and monster trucks, but unlike Unleashed, Untamed includes neither airplanes nor helicopters. Now, in my opinion, this is not a big loss, since those were both notoriously difficult to control, but I still find it interesting that they've basically downgraded this part of the game.

Multiplayer

The DS allows for up to 4 players to play via multi-card wireless with no online capabilities. The PS2 version, however, can play either 2 player splitscreen or up to 6 players online.

Splitscreen play on the PS2 works very well. With a vertical split, enough of the track is visible to anticipate turns as well as in fullscreen mode. DS wireless play offers the smoothest multiplayer experience due to a full screen and no ISP speed dependencies.

I found the online play (My gamertag is TTFFDALE--add me to your buddy list!) to work fairly well. Competitor vehicles sometimes jump around, and while distracting, it doesn't affect gameplay, and I have a fairly slow DSL connection. Having to type in my gamertag, email address, and password with no option to save them is a bit annoying, but hooking up my keyboard would simplify that process.

Graphics & Sound

The PS2 soundtrack offers an album's worth of punk/alternative music by artists like Nickelback, NOFX, and My Chemical Romance. It works well enough if you don't mind the genre and matches the feel of the game. Motor, crowd, and grunts sound fine--no surprises, nothing to write home about.

Graphically, not much has changed since the last version, but overall, it paints a nice picture. The DS suffers compared to the PS2 version in hardware capability, but the most noticeable difference is the lack of sense of speed in comparison to the PS2 version. If you play the PS2 version and then head out the door with your DS, you'll feel like you're playing Training Wheels vs. Tricycle instead, but if you just pick up the DS without playing the PS2 version, you won't notice the difference as much, and you get used to it once you've been playing for a few minutes. With no analog control, slower speeds have some advantage.

My biggest graphical complaint in the PS2 version shows up in just a few spots: the puddles. I'm a big fan of good water effects, but Mario Party 7 on the GameCube has better water effects than this one. The water in this game looks more like fog than water, and while I can understand not wanting to devote a lot of time to developing this, here's a hint: water should splash when you drive through it.

Better than Unleashed?

If you own MX vs. ATV Unleashed and haven't unlocked everything yet, Untamed feels a bit like an expansion pack for it. Go ahead and get your fill of Unleashed first. If you don't own Unleashed, it's a Greatest Hits title that you can (and should) buy for $20. If you've unlocked everything in Unleashed (without using the cheat code!) and are ready for more, pick this one up.

For kids, I've played this with a 7-year-old who had some experience with racing games, and he loved it. The forgiving controls and gradual difficulty make it a good entry-level game, but it has enough complexity to challenge adults. The two physics options can serve as a handicap if parents or older kids want to play with younger kids.

If you like racing games, both versions are great games, though, and will provide you with nearly limitless replay value, making this game a good investment. It's still not the real thing, but I can't type while in traction, and this is the next best thing.