A few months after the PS2 was released, early adopters had to endure a dearth of titles. It seemed like months went by with nothing being released for the new system. One of the only titles released during this time was ATV Offroad Racing. It was a good racing game that offered a decent off-road driving experience. ATV Offroad Fury 2 doesn't change much of the formula, or the graphics, or anything really, but it does offer online play, some different courses, and some fun multiplayer party games.

If you've played the original then you probably won't even need to go through this game's tutorial, but you do get some souped-up ATVs if you do. The tutorial lasts all of about two minutes, explaining the game's most important mechanic: preloading jumps. Upon going up a slope, pressing down on the analog stick or D-Pad will preload the ATV's springs, and pressing up at the top of a hill will send your vehicle soaring through the air.

In the air, tricks can be easily performed by pressing circle and/or triangle in conjunction with the D-Pad or analog stick. Pressing L1 tweaks the trick, but it's not an active tweak. If you press L1 in the middle of the trick, no tweak occurs. Since circle and triangle can be pressed together for a new series of tricks, it can be pretty tough to pull off a "Heart Attack Indian Air," which can only be done by also pressing L1. Still, tricks are overall not complicated to pull off.

Most of the other controls are simple. X is the gas, square is the brake, and holding X + square will let you drive in reverse. Why square couldn't be a combination brake/reverse key is beyond me. Aside from using L1 to tweak stunts, the other shoulder buttons are mapped to various cameras.

ATV2 has plenty of play options. Solo players can vie for championships in National, Enduro, and Supercross races. Winning a championship gives players a certain number of profile points that can be used to purchase clothing, extra tracks, extra multiplayer games, and even more ATVs. You can also earn profile points by completing goals on stunt courses.

One of the game's biggest problems is that players aren't encouraged to play the stunt courses. Some of the stunt objectives given are very tough to complete, and upon completion relatively few profile points are earned. Regardless of the mode played, for every 1,000 stunt points players get just one profile point. Since the most expensive ATVs have a price of 10,000 points, and the game gives at least 500 points for coming in first in a championship, racing is definitely the most important part of the game, especially since you need to unlock gear to compete with online gamers.

Speaking of online gaming, ATV2 offers lots of multiplayer options in general. There's the standard racing and freestyle modes, but also an awesome hockey game, king of the hill, treasure hunt, and tag mode. Hockey is a blast. The goal is to drive your ATV into a huge puck to get it into your opponent's goal. The game takes place in a slippery hockey arena. The hockey mode is incredibly fun, but the other two modes are locked and have to be opened up by profile points, and since they're not as fun, they're a slight disappointment.

Hockey without the fighting.
Still, the other modes are fun. Treasure hunt is a Smuggler's Run type of game where a bunch of tokens appear randomly on the map and you've got to get more of them before your opponents do. King of the hill has players tricking off of certain hills. Whoever gets the most points jumping over a hill controls that hill until a player scores better. In tag, players race for a ball. The person with the ball is "it" and the other players have to take the ball away. Whoever is "it" for the longest time wins. Aside from these mini-games, you can also choose to play multiplayer in any of the normal single-player game types as well. There's even a waypoint editor so you can create your own customized Enduro races. Two PS2s can also be hooked up through the i-Link, giving gamers more screen real estate.