If you are a longtime Nintendo fan or even a newcomer to gaming, you may not recognize this franchise. It began as ATV Offroad Fury on the PS2 and quickly became one of the best offroad experiences to be found. Since its first title, there have been numerous iterations and changes, most notably adding just about anything with wheels to compete against the ATVs. Continuing to make changes, this is the first time the franchise makes an appearance on a Nintendo console.
As a Wii title, Untamed puts a motion-sensing controller spin on its already established gameplay mechanics. You are actually given four different control options to choose from, and three make use of gestures. The horizontal and Wii wheel options are fundamentally the same, the only real difference being that one requires you to snap your Wii-mote into the Wii’s wheel attachment. In any event, these will both have you tilting the Wii-mote like a steering wheel. Unfortunately, Untamed suffers from the same problems that most racing games have with this control option. Tilting the Wii-mote to steer just isn’t precise enough so it leaves you horribly over-steering and fishtailing while trying to compensate.
The vertical option fairs much better and will have you using both the Wii-mote and Nunchuk attachment. You will be able to steer using the analog stick, but you will need to use gestures to preload your jumps and to perform stunts. This was actually my preferred method of control while playing because it seemed like the best marriage between standard and motion-based controls. Pressing the C or Z buttons and gesturing in any direction with the Wii-mote or Nunchuk will allow you to easily pull off the stunts. Still, if you long for a more traditional method of control, Untamed gives you the option of using the classic controller.
No matter what your control preferences are, Untamed is a fairly decent offroad racing experience. You will be able to choose from a multitude of vehicles ranging from MX bikes and ATVs to rail cars and tricked out golf carts. All of these vehicles have benefits and drawbacks, so it is really up to your style of play to determine which you will use. For instance, the MX bikes have incredible steering and get huge air, but it will be much easier to wreck or get taken out. If you are using a rail car, on the other hand, you will be much larger, steer slower, and get less air, but it will be very difficult for you to get taken out. All of these vehicles are fun to use and help to add variety and longevity to the gameplay. The only real disappointment here is that while you can change the way your vehicles look, you can’t really change their performance. I’m not really into meticulously tuning vehicles or anything, but having some sort of simplistic upgrades could have been a nice addition.
Along with having multiple options for controls and vehicles, Untamed also has a good variety of events to compete in. Besides all the standard modes you’ve come to expect from the franchise, Untamed gives players some new options including opencross races and an X-cross tournament. In the X-cross tournament, you will get to compete in a variety of events of your choosing to become the champion. For example, if you like nationals more than supercross races, then you can just enter the nationals and completely ignore supercross.
The new opencross events are one of these selectable race types in the X-cross tournament. Opencross races will have you racing across a mostly open world, minus all of the streets and walls that litter the game’s other race types. In these races, instead of racing on a set track, you are given checkpoints that you must drive through and the freedom to choose how best to get there. My only real problem with these races is that sometimes it is difficult to see trees before your vehicle becomes wrapped around them. Still, this is easily my favorite racing mode in the game and it is incredibly fun.
Untamed for the Wii also offers online play to help round out the game’s racing options. You will be able to compete in MX vs. ATV, machines, and freestyle events over your Wi-Fi connection. While I would really like to tell you all about the online gameplay, I am unable to do so. No matter how many times I tried or what time of day I tried, I was unable to find a single match in any of these events. I know the game is still fairly new, but this was a massive disappointment. I’m sure these online modes are probably fun, but unless you have a friend who is also going to have this game, you may not find a lot of online matches.
Graphically, this game performs admirably. While it obviously isn’t as pretty as its next-generation brothers, it does look fairly decent. The game’s drivers and many vehicles all look like you would expect from the Wii’s graphical capabilities. Whenever you wreck, you are also treated to a slow motion cinematic view of your wipe out. Even though you may be upset that you have wrecked, it can be incredibly entertaining to see how many times you can get your bike to spin or even how many people wreck as a result of your accident. There are a large variety of locales in which to race, and most look and feel rather unique. You will notice a slight amount of popup while racing, but thankfully, it is only in the distance and doesn’t affect the gameplay. There are also some really good lighting effects present that help the game appear even more realistic.
Despite some of its small shortcomings, Untamed is a fairly enjoyable experience. With all of the options you are given for controls, races, vehicles, and modes, this is definitely a title that isn’t short on gameplay and replayability. Hopefully, more people will pick up this title so that the online modes can also add even more fun to this title. Untamed is one of the best offroad racing games on the Wii and is well worth playing, or at least trying if you haven’t experienced this genre before.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
Good models, locales, and lighting effects are only diminished by some slight popup in the distance. 4.0 Control
You are given four options for controls here and at least half of them work really well; just avoid the dreaded horizontal and steering wheel controls. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
There is very little variety in both the game’s sound effects and soundtrack. You might just want to mute the television and put on some of your own tunes. 3.8
Play Value
This game gives you a ton of options and modes that will keep you playing for quite some time. The score would have been even higher if it were possible to find an online match.
3.7 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: