Motocross is an intense sport. There aren't many people who put their body on the line in quite the way motocross riders do, hanging precariously from their vehicle in a way that would break multiple limbs if they don't make it back on. I've always had a strong opinion about those people - they're crazy! Not that crazy is bad - there's a certain part of me that wants to do that too, though usually he's quickly squashed by the part of me that doesn't like medical bills. Luckily, for those of us unwilling to take the risks in real life, there are videogames like MX vs ATV Untamed.

As usual, picking your rider comes first. There are a number of named riders to choose from and judging by the short bio accompanying them, they probably are real people licensed for the game. However, those people like me who don't avidly follow the sport will be content to just go with "male rider". You can customize his colors and such, then it's time to hit the trail. Except, instead of a trail, it's more of a giant sandbox environment to play around in.

Each of the game's zones are large areas that have some obstacles to avoid, a number of things to jump off and a number of gateways to the actual challenges, the meat of the game. Unfortunately, they're still just big, mostly empty, zones - and the novelty of being allowed freedom wears off quickly because basically you have a lot of freedom to do very little. Still, no matter which event you choose first, the chance to ride around the zone beforehand helps a lot, because you can familiarize yourself with the terrain and take some of the trial and error out of events like 'collect these flags randomly strewn about the zone'.

Not that you won't have to retry them a few times anyway, as some of the events are minutely tuned to keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Often you finish the timed events with only seconds to spare and the races are challenging, pushing you to the limit in order to beat the other riders. Luckily, the frustration is lessened somewhat by the game's free roaming aspect, which allows you to take a breather at any time - ride around, do some tricks, jump onto buildings, whatever you want, but it's still ridiculously dull and just delaying the inevitable. Even with some little flickers of excitement, the objectives themselves are somewhat repetitive as well and you just get to do them all again from zone to zone - and the end result is a very tedious experience. You'll quickly find yourself tiring of the gameplay, even if you're a huge fan of the series.

An unfortunate part of the dullness is that the graphics don't help the game out at all. Compared to other PSP racing games, this ain't pretty. The character and his vehicle look alright, but the incredibly lifeless backgrounds don't make for an exciting location to race around. You'll ride around and you'll see some trees, you'll pull some tricks off some hills (which it will seem like you are landing at random) and every once in a while, there'll be a house. No path leading up to it, just a random house. If you ride around for long enough, you might find a track, which makes you feel like it actually is a world you're exploring and not like you're on a bunch of random tracks, but this can't compensate for woefully under-developed visuals when the PSP can do so much more.

One bright point, though, is that when it comes to variation is that there's more to this game than trading in your dirt bike for a bigger dirt bike, only to inevitably do it all over again. In fact, most of the vehicles aren't motorcycles at all - and this is one of the best things about Untamed. The ATV aspect is here, but there are some surprises too, like the snowmobile. Even if they seem like a totally aesthetic change, there's a certain thrill to doing backflips in a golf cart - and such vehicles do handle differently enough to make them unique. The ability to decide that today you want to take your monster truck out adds a bit of longevity to the game, allowing you to replay old zones in completely new ways.

In the end however, it all feels like a half-hearted attempt to stave off the inevitable doldrums, as Untamed's fun moments are quickly swallowed up by a tide of emptiness. Whereas motocross is crazy, MX vs ATV Untamed is a little too sane - and no matter how much you love this kind of thing, it's hard to take away the fact that the game is so bland. It's not really that the game puts forth bad ideas, or has poor execution, it's more like there just wasn't enough time to polish it and so everything is just kind of this big empty nothing.

If you're looking for a decent rally/off-road game on the go then you could do worse than MX vs ATV Untamed; it's just too bad that the only other offerings on the system for off-road racing games are in the same series and are just as decent if not worse - and any game where when I try to do a backflip on an MX bike and fall off, I don't want to be a part of. I can't quite bring myself to say that this game is bad, but it's not fantastic either and if you're not already a fan of the series or the sport then it's not really one to go off the beaten track to take a look at.

Reviewed by James Fanciullo for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).