ATV Quad Frenzy
Published by: Majesco
Developed by: Skyworks Technologies
Genre: E (Everyone)
Release Date: November 22, 2005
Written by: Matthew Prunty
Everyone knows that the racing genre couldn’t be complete without an entry into the ATV realm. Heading into the holiday season, Majesco and Skyworks Technologies teamed up to create another offroad experience that captures the true beauty and marvel of the highly successful Nintendo DS. So how did they fair, well lets look at the latest ATV title to hit the market with ATV: Quad Frenzy.
For those gamers who usually just jump right into the title without taking time to look at the manual, let alone the features of the title, will notice something about this racer. From the get go, this title gives off an impression that the title lacked support and time within its creation cycle. I’m not saying that this title isn’t enjoyable, but there are little things here and there that shows a lack of effort on the part of the development team. Lets start off with the visual department.
ATV: Quad Frenzy on a graphical standpoint isn’t the best title you have seen on the Nintendo DS, no is it the worst. Skyworks Technologies was able to pull of the overall feel and look like you were actually within the title. They were able to create enjoyable landscapes and immersive mountain effects on the limited graphical capabilities of the Nintendo DS. They made the title look on par with titles like Untold Legends on the PSP or even Coded Arms at certain points. This was possible mainly because they used a technique not commonly used in videogame developing known as Voxel.
I’m not going to parade on about what Voxel is, but the basic jiff of this program technique is that through scans, a developer is able to map specs light onto individual pixels in order to recreate a particular image. This technique help boost the visual allure of the title, but it came with a few drawbacks. Due to the technique, the terrain had to be drawn together, meaning that while racing, you will see miles and miles of road up ahead of you, which puts an awkward appearance on the title.
If you don’t catch on right away, you will notice that Quad Frenzy is all about its gameplay mechanics. First off, seeing how this isn’t your typical racer, where you can clock more than 100 mphs, more attention is paid to your bike and how it reacts with the road its on. There are a lot of jumps and bumps within the road, and seeing how one little mistake can spell disaster for you, you have to keep a sharp eye on the road, and the drivers ahead and behind you.
A nice touch to Quad Frenzy is the ability to do tricks while taking flight off of hilltops. Some gripe about how you go about pulling off various tricks, but I find it to be father simple to pull off. When you are airborne, you simply it the select button and various tricks appear on the screen for you to choice between. The one problem with this system is that by the time you finally choose your trick, the vehicle usually hits the group before you can finish pulling off the trick, which causes you to crash, or tip over. This is due to the fact that when the driver is pulling off the trick, his body motion seems to be in slow motion.
For some reason this game tries so hard, but fails so miserably. The user interface when you first load up the title was quickly thrown together. You can navigate through it without a lot of problems, but when it comes to reading the listing for things like your ranking in career mode, or even where the next race will be taking place, it is a real hassle. Due to the lack of preparation, you find yourself often having to remember what options you selected or what particular course looked like seeing how the menus don’t give you any real information that is needed to progress through the title.
Closing Comments:
This game is simply and in-complete project that Majesco was trying to get on the shelf as soon as possible. The graphics and what little gameplay mechanics that were present seemed like the main focus. There was potential in so many areas, but for some odd reasons, they weren’t capitalized on, leaving many gamers who purchased this title feeling incomplete, or a little ticked off. I’m not saying that this title isn’t worth playing, but I wouldn’t recommend it for purchasing, unless you just can’t get enough of ATV titles, or this is the only game that your game store has for the Nintendo DS...LOL.
Scores
Presentation - 6
Gameplay - 6
Graphics - 7
Sound - 5
Replay Value - 5
Overall Score - 6.5
-Matt Prunty
Developed by: Skyworks Technologies
Genre: E (Everyone)
Release Date: November 22, 2005
Written by: Matthew Prunty
Everyone knows that the racing genre couldn’t be complete without an entry into the ATV realm. Heading into the holiday season, Majesco and Skyworks Technologies teamed up to create another offroad experience that captures the true beauty and marvel of the highly successful Nintendo DS. So how did they fair, well lets look at the latest ATV title to hit the market with ATV: Quad Frenzy.
For those gamers who usually just jump right into the title without taking time to look at the manual, let alone the features of the title, will notice something about this racer. From the get go, this title gives off an impression that the title lacked support and time within its creation cycle. I’m not saying that this title isn’t enjoyable, but there are little things here and there that shows a lack of effort on the part of the development team. Lets start off with the visual department.
ATV: Quad Frenzy on a graphical standpoint isn’t the best title you have seen on the Nintendo DS, no is it the worst. Skyworks Technologies was able to pull of the overall feel and look like you were actually within the title. They were able to create enjoyable landscapes and immersive mountain effects on the limited graphical capabilities of the Nintendo DS. They made the title look on par with titles like Untold Legends on the PSP or even Coded Arms at certain points. This was possible mainly because they used a technique not commonly used in videogame developing known as Voxel.
I’m not going to parade on about what Voxel is, but the basic jiff of this program technique is that through scans, a developer is able to map specs light onto individual pixels in order to recreate a particular image. This technique help boost the visual allure of the title, but it came with a few drawbacks. Due to the technique, the terrain had to be drawn together, meaning that while racing, you will see miles and miles of road up ahead of you, which puts an awkward appearance on the title.
If you don’t catch on right away, you will notice that Quad Frenzy is all about its gameplay mechanics. First off, seeing how this isn’t your typical racer, where you can clock more than 100 mphs, more attention is paid to your bike and how it reacts with the road its on. There are a lot of jumps and bumps within the road, and seeing how one little mistake can spell disaster for you, you have to keep a sharp eye on the road, and the drivers ahead and behind you.
A nice touch to Quad Frenzy is the ability to do tricks while taking flight off of hilltops. Some gripe about how you go about pulling off various tricks, but I find it to be father simple to pull off. When you are airborne, you simply it the select button and various tricks appear on the screen for you to choice between. The one problem with this system is that by the time you finally choose your trick, the vehicle usually hits the group before you can finish pulling off the trick, which causes you to crash, or tip over. This is due to the fact that when the driver is pulling off the trick, his body motion seems to be in slow motion.
For some reason this game tries so hard, but fails so miserably. The user interface when you first load up the title was quickly thrown together. You can navigate through it without a lot of problems, but when it comes to reading the listing for things like your ranking in career mode, or even where the next race will be taking place, it is a real hassle. Due to the lack of preparation, you find yourself often having to remember what options you selected or what particular course looked like seeing how the menus don’t give you any real information that is needed to progress through the title.
Closing Comments:
This game is simply and in-complete project that Majesco was trying to get on the shelf as soon as possible. The graphics and what little gameplay mechanics that were present seemed like the main focus. There was potential in so many areas, but for some odd reasons, they weren’t capitalized on, leaving many gamers who purchased this title feeling incomplete, or a little ticked off. I’m not saying that this title isn’t worth playing, but I wouldn’t recommend it for purchasing, unless you just can’t get enough of ATV titles, or this is the only game that your game store has for the Nintendo DS...LOL.
Scores
Presentation - 6
Gameplay - 6
Graphics - 7
Sound - 5
Replay Value - 5
Overall Score - 6.5
-Matt Prunty
3 Comments:
Great review! I was wondering if you'd like to be a part of my website:
www.gamegulch.com
If so, contact me at gamegulch@yahoo.com.
Thanks for your consideration!
Nice review, Mprunty (even though this title wasn't on my imaginary list of DS games to buy).
Jimmie (Patrick)
I'm the first anonymous, and I forgot to say that this is Cal-Cal: the guy who wrote the Animal Crossing review.
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