ATV Quad Power Racing 2

Quad Power Racing 2 falls into a weird place amongst the other PS2 ATV games. This isn't a part of the THQ published MX vs. ATV series, nor the Sony published ATV Offroad Fury series. Instead, the Quad Power Racing series' life on the PS2 starts and ends with this game. What makes Quad Power Racing different from Offroad Fury is ultimately what ends up hurting it the most. Most vehicular games that feature both racing and stunts will separate the two sides into two different gameplay modes, but this career mode instead wants the main gameplay to be as complicated and frustrating as possible. In order to get gold medals in these tournaments, you must win races while pulling off high stunt scores at the same time. This might sound simple on paper, but the player is completely overloaded with all the different mechanics here. It's comparable to the Tony Hawk Underground games, but the big difference is that the button inputs in Tony Hawk are mostly reliable to use. The button inputs in Quad Power Racing will make you want to die.

Here's a breakdown of the mechanics you have to keep track of during the career mode races. First, you have to win the race to get a gold medal. Simple enough, but in addition to that, there's a second 'trick' ranking that you have to place highly in order to get enough points to win the tournament. That means getting first place in every race is not enough. You need to get trick points during your races, and a TON of them at that. Once you learn how to string together trick combos, this becomes much more manageable, but trying to learn the controls in the first place is a huge problem. The stick (or d-pad) that you use to rotate and flip the ATV around is the same stick you need to use in order to dial in trick inputs. Doing a flip requires you to hold the stick down, but doing a trick requires you quickly press the face button and flick the stick at the same exact time. If you're trying to flip the ATV and do a trick at the same time, good god damn luck. This isn’t Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

That's already a handful to keep up with, but then the game throws another curveball at you. Everybody can kick each other off the ATVs! It's funny to run up to AIs and kick them into the shadow realm, but this means they can do the same thing to you. And they will, CONSTANTLY. Whenever an AI is near you, they will automatically try to kick you off. This is cute when you're all racing together, though when you're trying to keep your trick combos alive, having an AI near you is like having a murder hornet buzzing around your head. AND there’s a boost mechanic in this game??? On top of everything, you can steal AI players’ boost (and they can steal yours) by kicking them off their quads. This is handy for when you don't feel like doing tricks to earn boost, though I find the whole 'kicking' system to be annoying.

The list of tracks in this game isn't long. There are only 5 tracks with 3 variants each. The difference in each variant is enough to add some novelty, though some of the differences are hard to spot. The track design itself is a mixture of smart and annoying. Most of these tracks feature 'trick' ramps and 'speed' ramps. Many times, a jump will let you approach it in such a way that if you want to launch to the moon and bust out tricks, you can take the higher part of the ramp. Though, if you're trying to set a lap record, there may be a lower part of the ramp you can speed over. Not everything is so convenient, however. Many blind jumps will launch you into walls, out of bounds, or into obstacles. Many corners you may try to cut will also feature troll obstacles to punish you for trying to take the easy way around the competition.

What kind of racing game doesn't show your lap times? This one! And why is there no map display of the track? At least we get a Crazy Taxi arrow (or even 2 arrows at the forks in the track, which is clever). Some other cute features include your character looking over their shoulder whenever an AI character is nearby, giving you an indication of where they are without needing to put more markers on the screen. Your character also scratches their ass a lot for some reason, possibly to let you know that you should be doing tricks. Despite my problems, QPR2 has many positives that keep it from being a waste of time. Although you have to play career mode to unlock ATVs, you only need to win the races to do so, rather than topping the trick leaderboard. Once you get a decent vehicle, you can move over to arcade mode, where you don't need to perform tricks at all. It’s unfortunate that you need to play the career first to unlock more content, because I've found arcade mode to be stupidly easy after having to wrangle the career mode medals.

The physics are one of the big parts of this game's strong points. These ATVs are bouncy, and each vehicle feels different from one another. Your vehicle has a 'spring' button that lets you charge up extra power for your jump, which lets you hop over small obstacles. Leaning the ATV over on its side generally feels good, as well as popping wheelies and doing flips. Though, if you want to test the game's limits, you can head over to challenge mode, which features a 'trials' obstacle course. Additionally, challenge mode has Gran Turismo style licenses. Though, unlike GT, these tests also judge your stunt maneuverability. In addition to slaloms, you also need to do things like maintaining a wheelie through a series of ramps. Or, you’ll need to quickly complete the handful of difficult obstacle courses, which might end up being fun for Monkey Ball masochists. I am not that much of a masochist.

This game ends up serving a reminder of what happens when you shove too many mechanics into what should be a straightforward racing game. It's not unplayable by any means, though the amount of dexterity required from the player right off that bat is unreasonable. Were the controls reliable, I might recommend this as a game that's worth learning. Though, as it is, the trick inputs are too wonky to be fun!