Rainbow Studios' ability at producing some of the better off-road racers within the last ten years is in no doubt, with Motocross Madness 1 and 2, ATV Off-road Fury 1 and 2, MX Unleashed and so on. Their latest release, MX vs. ATV Untamed sticks four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, monster trucks, dirt bikes and everything else you'd think would be great to fang about on a collection of varying track types. It plays as a part-simulation and part-arcade experience, with just enough realism to make you want to hunker down and learn some of the more intricate techniques needed to win later races. That's not before you spend at least an hour making a fool of yourself, crashing into barriers, crowds or fellow contestants at every chance possible.

Spend a bit more time playing though and you'll find a surprising amount of contradictions within the game's design. If you're a fan of the more over-the-top racing style, where massive jumps usually mean massive air-time spent doing all sorts of superhuman tricks followed by a near perfect landing and victory by a huge margin, you'll be somewhat disappointed. For instance, the first thing you'll likely notice is how harsh and downright punishing some of the restrictions are. If you happen to drift off of the track's boundary by a fraction, a big fat yellow arrow lights up directing you to turn back, followed by a countdown. Countdown reaches zero, you get reset to where you first left the track. If you're trailing last, it's just another sorry nail to the coffin but if you've managed to take front spot, you're crap out of luck as the time it takes to reset costs you a few places, usually enough to lose the race. Anyone heard of time penalties? Guess the designers forget that one. In contrast, you've managed to hold on to fourth position for 2/3 of the race. Corner ahead looks tight so you decide to cut a few chunks out of it and end up coming first with no penalty in sight. Another example: you hit a track marker and it sends you careering off the track. Yet you can be barrelling down a mountainside at 100mph, enter a jump which gets you the fattest amount of air time you've ever seen, land upside down with a terrific thump and yet no damage whatsoever. In a perfect world you'd have the best of both worlds: a serious game with the odd comedic twist thrown in for good measure. It's bleedin' obvious that this approach sits as comfortably as a chair made out of razor blades.

Pushing the Jekyll/Hyde feeling aside, what's great is how crowded it gets on track, typically when driving the 4-wheeled vehicles. If there's ever a game where you'd like to come third or fourth every time just to be in amongst the numerous types of vehicles whilst enjoying a visceral sense of racing action, this is it. Usually the first of three laps will have you jostling for position, enjoyably watching others getting pushed off track, getting stuck in trees or bouncing off a pile of rocks while you swerve out of the way of that monster truck landing upside down up ahead. As you gain first place, that's when the enjoyment levels go flat-line as you sub-consciously enter a state of almost cruise-control playing, going through the motions of winning without a bother, then moving on to the next series of races.

Four choices await the player from the beginning: Single player, Split screen, Xbox Live and Network. Within the Single player component, you have Quick Event (where you can randomize vehicle type, number of laps and so on), Custom Event (including nine racing options such as Open Cross, Waypoint, Freestyle and so forth), and finally X-Cross Tournament. The majority of the racing is found within the X-Cross Tournament, where finishing each race unlocks the next in series, resulting in the final race where money and glory await. Once the tournament's hosed and closed (aside from hitting Xbox Live, of course), you'll find the majority of the game's replay value contained within the game's Custom Events option.

The game provides two types of experiences: racing on two-wheeled Motocross bikes or a collection of 4-wheeled vehicles. There's no doubt the better of the two experiences has to be the Motocross bikes. The two are separated by handling characteristics and course layout. Driving with four wheels sees you on large outdoor tracks with a handling system as standard as they come, coming packed with a series of jumps, various obstacles, varying track widths, and locations and a mundane-ness that makes yawning almost compulsory. On two wheels however, you'll be tightly packed within an arena setting where the tracks come with some incredibly tight turns forcing intelligent bursts of braking and acceleration, massive jumps allowing equally massive tricks and a degree of difficulty that increases with progress.

Being placed in any event means you get cash, which translates into modifications. However, most of the optional extras seem focused on cosmetic changes to your vehicle/bike rather than making any noticeable difference to performance. Good for a change of colour but otherwise pretty pointless.

Graphically, it's nothing special with 'decent' being the only worthy descriptive for the whole experience. No complaints against the animation, or the frame rates, which hold up very well in some busy moments. You won't notice the dull environmental textures since you'll be focused on the road ahead and that's good, because they're nothing special either. Sound-wise I had as much fun with the sound turned right down than I did with it up. Engine sounds seemed too shrill, lacking the required gut-punching lower bass and the occasional chirp of a bird overwhelming everything else (yes, even ten other close-by engines) made it cringe worthy. Same goes for the selection of bland modern rock - more annoying than inspiring.

While you can't argue against the game's variety of very well-designed tracks and array of vehicle types, MX vs. ATV Untamed seems the kind of title you'd pull out when you're either bored, or need something for those annoying young relatives to play, just to shut the little monsters up. As it stands, the game aims too high without succeeding in any department. With plenty of other better racers for the Xbox 360, this one's more squarely aimed at the die-hard petrolhead.