You know the drill. You race through several circuits, trying to finish in the top three in order to advance. There are multiple drivers to choose from, including the mandatory girl with oversized breasts and insufficient protective gear. During races, you perform tricks, in order to charge your turbo boost. You can pre-load your suspension, giving you much more air over jumps, and thus more time to perform tricks. You can also kick opposing racers off their vehicles, which also raises your turbo. The action is standard, yet bolstered by an impressive sense of speed, keeping the fun factor high. Unfortunately, multiplayer is limited to two players, which greatly reduces the replay value.

The strength of this title definitely lies in its level design. Tracks are very long and full of steep inclines and huge jumps. The sheer variety of scenery and obstacles you will encounter during a lap serves to keep things refreshing and always challenging. Each level offers a unique challenge and I found myself eagerly wanting to explore them all.

Graphically, we have a somewhat mixed bag. Character models are blocky and rather clunky in their animation. On the other hand, environments are extremely attractive, covered in brightly colored high-resolution textures. Each track is bathed in impressive lighting effects that add needed atmosphere to the proceedings. The action is fast and the framerate is rock solid, showing no signs of the problems reported in the PS2 version. Also notable is the real-time damage displayed by your vehicle. Driving recklessly will result in pieces of the plastic body breaking off entirely.

In the sound department, it's a tale of two extremes. Sound effects are great. Engines sound very realistic, and when racing in a pack you truly get the feeling of having vehicles on all sides. That said, I have a major problem with the irrelevant non-video-game music. Who made the universal decision that cheesy pseudo-metal pop music is the definition of extreme? The licensed tracks not only add nothing to the game, but they are so uninspired that they actually take away from it. I mean, what does Godsmack have to do with ATV racing? The music is completely unrelated to the action occurring on the screen. It’s annoying and distracting. Needless to say, I turned the music off after only thirty minutes of play, and quickly administered first aid to my bleeding ears.

ATV Quad Power Racing 2 conforms to the genre template, without ever taking a chance or trying to do something different. That said, what it does do, it does well. It’s a fun, attractive racing title with impressively designed courses. Those looking for a bit of arcade racing action will definitely find ATV appealing. It’s just unfortunate that it conforms so closely to the norm and, thus, inevitable mediocrity.

· · · PBMaX