Rainbow Studios.  You know and love 'em from their stellar racing series: Splashdown and ATV Offroad Fury.  Near-perfect controls, excellent level design, good music, and pretty graphics are just a few of the wonderful things you can say about those games.

When THQ acquired Rainbow Studios, it was time to say goodbye to Sony and the ATV Offroad series (for now at least).  Just because one off-road series has ended, however, does not mean that the developer cannot create a sequel in spirit.

And so they did with MX Unleashed.  If you've played either of the mentioned games then you know what to expect from Rainbow Studios' latest offering.  Just replace the ATV with a motorcycle and take away any fantasy elements from the courses.  Now you have MX Unleashed.

It's not long into the game that you realize what it takes to succeed.  Usually speed can get you through a game, but what would you say if I told you that in this game you actually go faster than your opponents?  Almost at all times, no less, and yet they still manage to beat you.  How?  Because they use the course to their advantage.  They try to take each hill as it comes.  Instead of flying up and down as newcomers likely will, they judge the distance between the biggest and smallest hills and base their jumps on that.  You cannot possibly ride every hill and expect to win.  You must avoid some of them by jumping higher.  Before you know it, that's just what you'll be doing.

The controls are so tight that they seem slippery at times.  That may sound strange, but it's because of how severe the turning radius is.  Players will have to make a lot of sharp turns in this game, so the developers designed the controls to help them succeed.  This creates a bit of a learning curve, but if you've played ATV Offroad Fury you'll have no trouble getting used to MX Unleashed.

Due to the lack of fantasy elements, and due to the fact that this is a motocross game, I can't say I was as impressed by MX Unleashed's track design as I had hoped to be.  Motocross isn't my thing, but I love the games because developers find unique ways to make them fun.  Such is the case here, but don't expect too much variety from the courses.  There are a few cool tracks that are set outside the dome, but for the most part all you get is hills, hills, and more hills.  If you're interested in MX Unleashed because it's a motocross game, you'll be thrilled with the tracks.  If you're interested in it because it's a racing game from Rainbow Studios, you'll be a little disappointed.

No motocross game would be complete without a trick system.  MX Unleashed's trick system is pretty cool, and very demanding.  You fly through the air really fast, so pulling off an incredible stunt is not an easy task.  Unless you don't expect to land the trick, in which case you won't be rewarded with any points.

Tricks are performed in the standard Rainbow Studios fashion: hold a face button and move the analog stick in any direction.  Up to 24 tricks can be mapped to the control scheme.

For those of you who wish to win the race first and be stylish second, take comfort in knowing that you don't have to perform any tricks in this game.  In Splashdown it's a must – performing tricks increases your speed.  But in this game the only reason to do it is to gain points that can be used later to unlock a ton of extras.  So it's definitely worth doing, but it's not a necessity.  Chances are you'll play through the first part of the career mode, get the hang of the game, and then play through those stages again to gain all the missed points.

Musically this game is pretty cool.  Technically it falls flat on its face.  MX Unleashed makes use of the Xbox's custom soundtrack feature.  That's a very welcome addition.  Most games use it so if this game didn't there'd be reason to complain.  Forget that though because the game provides you with enough reasons to complain anyway.

If you have any CDs saved to your Xbox, expect to hear them more than anything else.  The jukebox is semi-randomized.  What that means is that you'll rarely get to hear the actual songs from the game, but will instead be forced to hear the same custom songs several times in a row.  For some reason the game always picks the same group of custom tunes.  You can manually select the song you want, but it's cumbersome and takes a lot of time.  In many cases that didn't work right either.  I'd select a song but it wouldn't register, causing a different song to play.  It'd utterly ridiculous.  I've played dozens of games that used the custom soundtrack feature effectively, and it NEVER interfered with the game's own music.  The only way for me to hear MX Unleashed's soundtrack was to go to the options screen!  I cannot tell you how infuriating this is.  If the soundtrack sucked I wouldn't have cared so much, but it's good and the game ruined it for me.

I hate to pour dirt on the grave, but I must: the sound effects stink.  The way-too-loud engine sounds overpower everything else.  I know the sound designers were just trying to mimic real life, but I hope they don't try so hard next time.

MX Unleashed is a flawed but fun game.  It's nowhere near the polished quality of Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild, nor is it as good as ATV Offroad Fury.  It doesn't include an online multiplayer mode either, which is strange considering how big Xbox Live is.  But it's worth a rental.

Gameplay: 7.9
I experienced some deja vu immediately after the first race started.  It felt like Splashdown, but not quite.  Then I remembered that Rainbow Studios’ other big title is ATV Offroad Fury.  Now it all made sense: MX Unleashed is like an unofficial sequel to that game.

Graphics: 7
On PS2 these graphics are close to an 8.  On here they're no better than a 7.  Xbox is so much more powerful than PS2 – why in the world does everyone seem to ignore this fact?

Sound: 5
MX Unleashed has a great soundtrack.  It's a shame they had to go and ruin it with technical issues.  It's funny when you think about it – the gameplay has no technical problems.  But the music player is a mess.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7
You could call this game ATV Offroad Fury 2.5.

Multiplayer: 6.9
Two-player split-screen just doesn’t cut it.

Overall: 7.7
Worth renting, but I don't think there's enough greatness here to make it a must-buy for anyone but the most extreme motocross fans.  It's a long game, and that can go a long way in this industry.  You'll be playing this one for weeks.  There are tons of leagues and several tracks (many of which are similar, but that's still a lot) within them.