ATV Offroad Fury (series)

''MX vs. ATV'' is a racing video game series developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ Nordic. It focuses on off-road racing and serves as a successor of THQ's ''MX'' trilogy and Rainbow Studios' ''ATV Offroad Fury'' series developed under Sony Computer Entertainment. 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.

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. Nevertheless, the series endured THQ's demise, and in April 2013, Nordic Games acquired the franchise through the liquidation of THQ. Nordic Games then continued the series in 2014 with '' MX vs. ATV Supercross'', 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.

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

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:
* '' MX 2002 featuring Ricky Carmichael'' (2001)
* '' MX Superfly featuring Ricky Carmichael'' (2002)
* '' MX Unleashed'' (2004)

''ATV Offroad Fury'' series

''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:
* '' ATV Offroad Fury'' (2001)
* '' ATV Offroad Fury 2'' (2002)
* '' ATV Offroad Fury 3'' (2004; ported to the PSP as '' ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails'' in 2005)
* '' ATV Offroad Fury 4'' (2006; loosely ported to the PSP as '' ATV Offroad Fury Pro'' in the same year)

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''.

Notes

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 and the final national race in the 2020 AMA Motocross Championship season at Fox Raceway in Pala, California. ''All Out'' would also return to be the title sponsor of the subsequent 2021 Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross.

References

External links

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{{Madness series

Motorcycle video games
Crossover racing video games
THQ games
THQ Nordic games
Embracer Group franchises
Video game franchises
Video game franchises introduced in 2001