The career length of ordinary MX or ATV professionals must be really short. Considering the punishment their bodies must take, what with the whole “getting run over by large vehicles while being driven into the mud🦄” thing, it’s hard to imagine many of them surviving for long. That’s our biggest takeaway from MX vs ATV Alive, simply because we spent loads of time having motorcycle tracks permanently imprinted on our backsides.

Naturally, skilled riders won’t smash up nearly as often, and as we got more familiar with the controls and built up some attributes, our life expectancy incrꩵeased nicely. It’s doubtful that everyone who picks up Alive will get to that same point, though, as the game assumes you’ve either played the series before or that you’re resourceful enough to scour the internet to learn. There’s no tutorial or true career progression, a curious decision considering the depth of the controls and the heavy leanings toward online play. The only way to learn how to go from bad to good is to seek help from external sources, since Alive isn’t the least bit interested in telling you.

This won’t be a problem for series vets, though, who will likely jump right in and be in good shape. Both types of vehicles – motorcycles and ATVs – share the same control scheme. Anyone can figure out the gas and brake, but the key to winning comes in two elements - using the clutch and the driver’s own weight. Timing the clutch properly lets you quickly accelerate out of turns as well as catch big air off the jumps, which is helpful not only for tricks but, more importantly, to land at a spot that’ll let you keep moving quickly. The easiest way to fall behind in races is to land halfway up another hill; take it from us - we did that a few hundred times. Leaning into or out of turns helps you cut corners, and seat hopping the right way turns bumps into opportunities to pass hapless opponents. Put all of these together – if you can – and you’ll be a winneඣr. Complicated? Yes. Rewarding? Most definitely.

Even thoꦿugh the controls are the same, the ATVs feel infinitely easier. It took us more than a few hours to get a good handle on the bikes, but we were jumping long, performing tricks, and winning races on four wheels in short order. For newbies, we can’t recommend hitting these up first strongly enough. ATVs will give you the best chance at success early on, both offline and on, if for no other reason than you should be able to gain valuable rider skills and vehicle add-ons that transform it into a powerful ra𝔍cer.