Ludography
80/100
Players14 ratings
76/100
Critics3 reviews
More scores
Metacritic47 critic reviews
75/100
Metacritic usersuser score
69/100
GameFAQsJust Right
3.31/5
Player reviews
88% positive2,922 reviews
Steam Deck
Playable
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$19.99

Where to get it

MX vs. ATV: Reflex cover

2009 · Rainbow Studios · Racing · Simulation

MX vs. ATV: Reflex

Think fast and hang on to your ride as you take independent control of the rider and take the ultimate test of mettle. Dual controls let you tear it up with death-defying tricks and high-flying freestyle action. Fight for traction and dig up the track to leave your mark.

Released
1 December 2009
Platforms
Nintendo DSPlayStation 3PlayStation PortableWindowsXbox 360
Genres
RacingSimulationSports
Developers
Rainbow Studios
Publishers
THQ
Series
MX vs. ATV
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionNon-fiction
Country
United States
Age ratings
ACB PGESRB EPEGI 3
Languages
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat
18hmain story29hcompletionist

About

MX vs. ATV Reflex is a 2009 off-road racing video game developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ. It is the third game in the MX vs. ATV series, available on Microsoft Windows and all seventh-generation consoles except the Wii. It is also the last game in the series to be available on handheld consoles.

The Microsoft Windows and home console version received generally favorable reviews from critics for most of its gameplay, innovative "Rider Reflex" controls and realistic terrain deformation, but its occasionally chaotic nature (deemed unforgiving towards more casual players), career mode and graphics were criticized. It is often considered to be the best game in the series by fans. Reception for the handheld console versions, however, was generally unfavorable.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The core focus of the game allows for the player to race motocross and supercross on motocross bikes or ATVs. The game also includes events such as omnicross, free ride, champion sport track, waypoint racing, and freestyle motocross.

Although the game is part of the MX vs. ATV series, Reflex was built from the ground up featuring a new control scheme and physics engine. The new control scheme is labeled "reflex" which utilizes both analog sticks. The left analog controls the handlebars while the right analog stick controls the rider's body movement.

Development

Rainbow Studios art director Ian Wood said in an interview with SPOnG that the development team decided against making a Wii version of Reflex, but did not provide a clear reason why. He hinted that the developers chose to skip it to focus efforts on designing Reflex's new physics and terrain deforming system, key features that were better suited for the more powerful PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and personal computers. Tantalus Media, which developed the handheld versions of the previous game, MX vs. ATV Untamed, was invited once again to develop handheld versions for Reflex.

This would be the last time in the series that Rainbow Studios would allow another company to collaborate on a MX vs. ATV game. Starting with MX vs. ATV Alive, subsequent sequels would be developed singlehandedly by Rainbow Studios.

Reception

The Xbox 360 version received "generally favorable reviews", while the PlayStation 3 version received "average" reviews, just one point shy of "favorable", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. A large portion of praise had gone towards both the new control scheme as well as the terrain deformation. Many acknowledged the game's successful separation of the rider from the machine with the rider reflex dual-analog control.

Dakota Grabowski of GameZone said: "A wonderful foundation has been set and it's now time for Rainbow Studios to expand on what they have set up with their next iterations. The future is bright and fans should be rejoicing". Austin Light of GameSpot said of the PS3 and X360 versions: "Unfortunately, things don't always work correctly in MX vs. ATV Reflex.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Xbox 3601 December 2009North America · Australia 10 December 2009 · Europe 5 February 2010
Windows1 December 2009North America · Australia 10 December 2009 · Europe 5 February 2010
PlayStation 31 December 2009North America · Australia 10 December 2009 · Europe 5 February 2010

Editions and related releases

Followed by
MX vs. ATV Alive
Ported as
MX vs. ATV: Reflex
Built on it
MX vs. ATV ReflexMX vs. ATV: Reflex

In the same series

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.