MX vs. ATV

MX vs. ATV is an American racing video game franchise developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ Nordic that focuses on off-road racing, as a crossover between THQ's MX trilogy and Sony's ATV Offroad Fury series. Early games in the series, starting with MX vs. ATV Unleashed, were published by THQ prior to its bankruptcy and liquidation in 2013. As the name suggests, the series' main focus is racing with motocross bikes and all-terrain vehicles, although other vehicles such as dune buggies and sport trucks were also featured in the games. Players can also fly airplanes and helicopters in some of the games.[1]

MX vs. ATV
Genre(s)Racing
Developer(s)Rainbow Studios
Locomotive Games
Beenox
Incinerator Studios
Tantalus Media
Publisher(s)THQ (2005–11)
THQ Nordic (2014–)
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, mobile phones, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
First releaseMX vs. ATV Unleashed
March 16, 2005
Latest releaseMX vs. ATV Legends
June 28, 2022

In August 2011, THQ shut down THQ Digital Phoenix (which Rainbow Studios was known as at the time) as well as other game development studios and did not "actively pursue further development" of the MX vs. ATV franchise in a company re-organization.[2][3] Nevertheless, the series endured THQ's demise, and in April 2013, Nordic Games acquired the franchise through the liquidation of THQ.[4] Nordic Games then continued the series in 2014 with MX vs. ATV Supercross,[5] then endeavored to bring the series to eighth-generation consoles, porting Supercross to some of them many months later and releasing another sequel for them in 2018, titled MX vs. ATV: All Out. A seventh game for ninth-generation consoles, MX vs. ATV Legends, was released on June 28, 2022.[6]

Games

The MX vs. ATV series is a cumulative crossover between THQ's MX trilogy and Sony's ATV Offroad Fury series. Every game in the franchise prior to MX vs. ATV Reflex was available on the PlayStation 2.

MX trilogy
MX
Genre(s)Racing
Developer(s)Locomotive Games
Rainbow Studios
Publisher(s)THQ
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, mobile phones
First releaseMX 2002 featuring Ricky Carmichael
July 3, 2001
Latest releaseMX Unleashed
February 17, 2004

The MX trilogy is a collection of three motocross racing games, all published by THQ in the early 2000s, serving as a follow-up to THQ's Championship Motocross featuring Ricky Carmichael duology, whose two games were released for the PlayStation and the sequel also being available on Game Boy Color. Like the Championship duology, the first two installments, 2002 and Superfly, were developed by Locomotive Games and endorsed by Ricky Carmichael, whose likeness went on to appear in some MX vs. ATV video games. The third game, MX Unleashed, was developed by Rainbow Studios, which had started the ATV Offroad Fury series around the time 2002 and Superfly were released and went on to create the MX vs. ATV crossover series a year after Unleashed. All three installments were released on sixth-generation platforms, with the entire trilogy available on the PS2 and Xbox.

The three games in the trilogy are:

ATV Offroad Fury series
ATV Offroad Fury
Genre(s)Racing
Developer(s)Rainbow Studios
Climax Racing
Publisher(s)Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
First releaseATV Offroad Fury
February 5, 2001
Latest releaseATV Offroad Fury 4
October 31, 2006

ATV Offroad Fury is a series of ATV racing games published by Sony Computer Entertainment that ran from 2001 to 2006, consisting of four main titles released on the PlayStation 2. Rainbow Studios developed the first two games of the series, before abandoning it in favor of developing MX Unleashed and the MX vs. ATV series, while passing the development of the ATV Offroad Fury series to Climax Racing, which would produce two more sequels and port them to the PlayStation Portable under different titles.

The main titles of the ATV Offroad Fury series are:

Main series

After the release of the MX trilogy and the first three ATV Offroad Fury games, the MX vs. ATV series began in earnest with MX vs. ATV Unleashed in 2005. Shortly after the series began, the ATV Offroad Fury series quietly concluded with one last sequel, as well as PSP ports of its last two games.

Every game in the series was released on non-Nintendo consoles, with Untamed, Reflex, and All Out also available on at least one Nintendo platform. All games support local split-screen multiplayer racing between 2 players on consoles and PC, while utilizing online multiplayer to support contests with larger player pools. Local wireless multiplayer among up to four players are supported on handheld versions of the games, except the PSP version of Reflex.

Year Game Platform(s)
PS2 Xbox PC Mob PSP NDS Wii PS3 X360 PS4 NS XOne PS5 SXS
2005 MX vs. ATV Unleashed Yes Yes Yes Yes Port[lower-alpha 1] No No No No No No No No No
2007 MX vs. ATV Untamed Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
2009 MX vs. ATV Reflex No No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No
2011 MX vs. ATV Alive No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
2014 MX vs. ATV Supercross No No Port[lower-alpha 2] No No No No Yes Yes Port[lower-alpha 2] No Port[lower-alpha 2] No No
2018 MX vs. ATV All Out No No Yes No No No No No No Yes Port[lower-alpha 3] Yes No No
2022 MX vs. ATV Legends No No Yes No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes

Notes
  1. Released in 2006 as MX vs. ATV: On the Edge.
  2. Released in 2015/2016 as MX vs. ATV: Supercross Encore.
  3. Released on September 1, 2020.[7]

In other media

The game MX vs. ATV All Out is the title sponsor of two US motocross events, despite their omission of all-terrain vehicles: the 2020 Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida[8] and the final national race in the 2020 AMA Motocross Championship season at Fox Raceway in Pala, California.[9][10] All Out would also return to be the title sponsor of the subsequent 2021 Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross.[11]

References
  1. "MX vs. ATV Unleashed On GameVortex.com". Psillustrated.com. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  2. McWhertor, Michael (August 9, 2011). "THQ Cuts 200 Jobs, MX vs. ATV Series, de Blob Studio and More". Kotaku. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
  3. Mitchell, Richard (August 9, 2011). "THQ 'not to actively pursue further development' of MX vs ATV franchise". Joystiq. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
  4. "The future of Darksiders, Red Faction and THQ's other IP at Nordic Games". Polygon. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  5. Goldfarb, Andrew (December 20, 2013). "MX vs ATV Supercross Coming in 2014". IGN. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  6. McGregor, Ross (April 26, 2022). "Off-road racer MX vs ATV Legends' release date slips to June". Traxion. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  7. Romano, Sal (6 July 2020). "MX vs. ATV All Out coming to Switch on September 1". Gematsu. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  8. "MX VS ATV ALL OUT JOINS RCSX AS TITLE SPONSOR FOR 2020 EVENT". 2 March 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  9. "How to Watch: MX vs ATV Fox Raceway National" (Press release). 9 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  10. "Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Highlights video: MX vs ATV All Out Fox Raceway National". 10 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  11. "Ricky Carmichael Daytona Supercross 2021 Scheduled for March 7-9". CycleNews. 13 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
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