8.5
Dev: Techland
Genres: Racing
Platform: Xbox - XBLA, PSN, PC
Release Date: 30/05/2012
Download on XBLA
Genres: Racing
Platform: Xbox - XBLA, PSN, PC
Release Date: 30/05/2012
Download on XBLA
Mad Riders Review
Site Score
7.0
Good: Core racing is what makes this game good.
Bad: Stunts are…fiddly.
User Score
5.3
(3 votes)
Click to vote
If there is one word I could use to describe Mad Riders it would be ‘adrenaline rush’. Ok that’s two words, but they sum of Mad Riders perfectly; if nothing else it’ll get your blood pumping.
Developed by Techland, Mad Riders sees players performing aerial stunts whilst racing at break-neck speeds, and thankfully the core racing side of the game is fantastic. Racing in Mad Riders is very simple, yet it is one reason why it endears itself to me. To be first to the finish line you will need a mixture of speed, good driving, boosts and of course what every good racing game has – shortcuts.
When I first loaded up the game I thought I would ease myself in by trying ‘Quick Start’ – here I was stuck with racing on one track – as the others were as of yet unlocked, a choice of different looking drivers – whatever took my fancy as they have no effect on your racing attributes, and a choice of quad bike – your weapon of choice in Mad Riders.
Here you can do endless customisation of our choice of quad bike – all of which have no bearing on its attributes, but you can completely go to town on the 4-wheeled frenzy machine. From changing the colour of your alloys to the design of the handlebars there are a range of options to make our quad bike look like a mean, mud-surfing machine.
By selecting quick start I limited myself to the choice of one map and one quad bike; on reflection I should have jumped straight into the career mode as I would have had more than one choice of quad, the same map and a tutorial – whereas the quick start, strangely, doesn’t offer this.
However, all is forgotten once the countdown goes to 0. Here we start driving frenetically to be first over the finishing line. Fellowing AI racers can be a challenge to beat even in the early races, adding to the thrill. Around the tracks there are tokens that can be collected to help increase your boost bar. Stunts also give you boosts, yet I found these were a bit fiddly to pull off.
If you’re looking for a quick, adrenaline fuelled fix this is your game.
For the price, you can’t complain with the content in the career mode; 45 tracks – though not all unique, the variety makes it hard to know where each corner is all the time. A 12-player online multiplayer, stunt challenges, time trials and checkpoint battles are available, giving enough content for a full retail release. Indeed the fact that content is en mass detracts from the odd flaw in the game.
Handling is not great no matter what quad bike you use, some parts of tracks are cut and pasted onto others and when I tried to play online multiplayer I was matched with no others despite waiting a full 10 minutes. However, people who buy this game will not go unsatisfied as this is a good title; true it’s no Forza or Need for Speed but it does the job and for the price of 800 MS points you get a lot of game for your money.
If you’re looking for a quick, adrenaline fuelled fix this is your game. The racing is great and there is a lot of content to chug through.
Core racing is what makes this game good.
Amount of tracks to get through could be found in a full retail game.
Shortcuts are fun.
Handling is…iffy.
Stunts are…fiddly.
For 800MS Points you get a lot of game for your buck, I felt the adrenaline pumping as I was racing which, for me, is a good indicator that you’re on to a good racing game.
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