Disney Interactive Studios is not quite known for their contribution to the racing genre. However, the publisher decided to change that and with that comes Pure, an ATV racing game penned to give you the most extreme ATV-Racing experience possible. This off-road racing game is a dime in a dozen of racing games in the Xbox 360’s library. Pure looks to rewrite the off-road racing genre and make it fun again and it’s certainly a good start.

It’s All About Your Quad

When you open up Pure, you are greeted with an entertaining and interesting warning label; ‘The stunts performed in this game are purely fantasy and are recommended not to be performed in real life’. This must be why I must be suffering from a broken leg for the past week when I tried out one of those tricks. It’s all about the thrill of it.

You’re first trip to the Garage will get you kicked off into making your first ATV-Quad ready for the World Tour. World Tour is your basic single player mode that’ll get you through as many races as possible. As you earn more points you will unlock further races and it’s always a plus to get higher in the rankings as you move along. There are, of course, more of the basic modes you can find in any other racing game.

Your gas and brake don’t take much to handle and as an added bonus you somehow have the skill to pull unimaginable tricks that would probably take the average ATV-racer quite a while to master. The trick system puts Pure into the same kind of league as the Tony Hawk series with his skateboard. The tricks give you extra boost with the A, B and Y buttons which all extend your ability to pull off more advanced tricks. Pure encourages the fact that you need these tricks and jumps to successfully finish ahead in the race and you with 15 other riders in the race, 16 totals, make sure you don’t bump into anyone on the ride down.

There are many angles to take your ATV-racer through the World Tour. As it turns out, you can’t just ride the wave of your lone ATV throughout the entire Tour. You’ll eventually need to work on another ATV and possibly more then just 2. Each terrain offers something different and has its own advantages catered to different types of ATVs. This continually keeps the racing fresh instead of sticking to what works.

Racing the AI is fairly competitive for the most part and offers the most out of the each race. You won’t get too flustered if you end up in 8^th or 15^th place in the end of it all. Every place offers its own points system so as to not keep you completely out of the loop. These points add up to your place in the overall World Rankings during World Tour mode. When you get online, you’ll be greeted to Freestyle mode which is what most racers will probably stick too if you’re looking for a real challenge. Freestyle mode gives you the chance to show off your tricks and gain as much points as possible.

Graphics

The environment created in Pure has so much attention to detail that it almost overshadows everything else in the game. Luckily, since you’ll be concentrating on the gameplay, the graphics won’t matter as much until you get to those big jumps. The blur you see on your screen really adds to the feel of the race. The attention to details stretches down to the riders themselves as you notice the clothes on their backs and the insides of their ATVs. The landscaping of the tracks is out of this world and quite an achievement for an off-road racing title of this nature. You can take a gander at the environments all you want, just remember that you’re in a middle of a race.

Sound

There isn’t much going on here. You’ll mostly be hearing the sounds of your ATV revving up and gearing your way through the tracks. The music is a randomly repeated techno style that doesn’t have much effect other then as filler to keep you going through the race. This is why I mentioned that the high end graphics have a little too much attention to detail to give everything else a chance to shine.

Plasma Factor

The multiplayer and customization give Pure an edge over most other off-road racing games. The ability to build your own ATV to match the environment around you is a pretty big deal. You gain more parts as you ride through each tournament course. These parts are all tailored to specific needs such as speed, or more lift for tricks…etc. There are a lot of colors to choose from, so if you’re color coordinated enough you can come up with a nice combination. The online is where most of the fun can be had if you are tired of racing single player. The multiplayer supports a robust 16 players and works just like a charm. You can enter the standard racing mode or just hop right into freestyle and try to perform as many tricks as possible in a single race.

Conclusion

Pure is a nice first step for Disney Interactive. They have a found a license that works and should be able to bring us more outdoor adventures. I’m sure we’ll be seeing other vehicles in the mix sooner or later like the very popular professional dirt-bikes. Pure is certainly worth a look if you’re looking for an entertaining time on the track and want to perform some of those tricks you’ve been watching on ESPN, it’s all there. For some racing fans, this game will be worth every bit of the $60 price tag. However, everyone else may want to download the demo first.  In the end, Pure is a great racing game that has a lot to offer gamers.