Pure provides a great adrenalin rush in small doses
Welcome to the Pure world circuit, an ATV racing event set on a world where the laws of gravity are tossed to the wayside allowing riders to soar over magnificent vistas and land truly impossible and breathtaking stunts. When you think of your typical ATV dirt bike racing game you would usually conjure the image of faceless riders tearing up a muddy track perhaps in a stadium with a few jumps here and there. Disney’s Pure for the Xbox 360 and PS3 throws this tired image out the window and drops us into beautiful parts of the world that almost makes us feel guilty to churn up at tremendous speeds. Almost.
Pure isn’t trying to be a realistic racing game like Froze motorsport and Need for Speed, so for the more casual player you won’t need worry about chucking your controller at the TV if you fail to make that corner just right. Pure instead sets you up with a very simple formula when it comes to racing which places more emphasis on pulling spectacular tricks than being the fastest. In fact there is even a special event mode in the game where your fuel is rapidly falling and the only ways to refill it and stay in the race is string together the most breathtaking tricks and obtain the largest combo.
Pulling these at first complex looking tricks is broken down to a very simple and intuitive mechanic. Simple stunts are only available at the start of a race and are performed by soaring off one of the many available jumps and hitting A and any direction on the control stick. After a few of these tricks you will be able to pull more extravagant tricks which are assigned to the B and Y buttons and then finally, your special trick. These are truly a spectacle to behold. Riders will pull all manner of crazy stunts ranging from hoping off your ATV in the air to spin around and around like a missile, break-dance around your ATV or stand up on your handlebars and play some air guitar. Needles to say they look awesome and it feels immensely satisfying to pull them off, but my only gripe is that I wish there where more of them. It can be very easy to accidentally pull the same tick again when you get caught up in the race meaning some get overdone and boring quickly.
As previously mentioned Pure offers some very picturesque locations for you to speed through. You would initially think variety in the tracks of an off-road ATV racing game would be hard to find but pure keeps things fresh by sending you round Death Valley like landscapes, tropical jungles and even racing up icy glaciers.
The lack of split screen multiplayer and a relatively short single player career of five hours does somewhat limit Pure’s replay value but a solid online experience pitting up to 16 players from all around the world on the same track ensures pure doesn’t get left behind in the dust. For those without this option Pure’s engrossing gameplay and stunning visuals still make this a thrill ride not to be missed.
