MX vs. ATV (series)

## *MX vs. ATV*

### Developers

Rainbow Studios, Beenox, THQ Wireless, Incinerator Studios, Universomo and Tantalus Media

### Platforms

PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, mobile phone, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

### First release

*MX vs. ATV Unleashed*
March 16, 2005

### Latest release

*MX vs. ATV Legends*
June 28, 2022

The ***MX vs. ATV*** **series** is an off-road racing video game series published by THQ. It focuses on mixed-vehicle racing and intense competitions between motocrosses and all-terrain vehicles, as a crossover between THQ's *MX* trilogy and Sony Computer Entertainment's *ATV Offroad Fury* series.

## History

Seeking another opportunity to make more high-quality motocross racing games after Microsoft's PC-exclusive *Motocross Madness* duology, Rainbow Studios took the reins of the *MX* trilogy from Locomotive Games to produce its final installment: *MX Unleashed*. What made it different from the previous two installments was that Rainbow Studios envisioned that motocrosses in the game would be able to hold their own against larger vehicles. The game would thus be a precursor to a more ambitious project from Rainbow Studios: a crossover racing game series pitting the motocrosses of the *MX* trilogy against the all-terrain vehicles of the *ATV Offroad Fury* series it started earlier in the decade. The series would begin in earnest in 2005 with *MX vs. ATV Unleashed*, initially available on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows, before being ported to the PlayStation Portable as *MX vs. ATV On the Edge*.

In the several years that followed, towards the end of the 2000s, THQ and Rainbow Studios experimented with a multi-platform approach for the series, releasing two sequels to *Unleashed*, *MX vs. ATV Untamed* and *MX vs. ATV Reflex*, on several platforms, as opposed to primarily focusing on the latest two non-Nintendo consoles on the market. In the next decade that followed, however, Rainbow Studios would go back to singlehandedly making subsequent sequels that primarily targeted the latest high-definition non-Nintendo consoles.

The series would then grow with three more sequels in the 2010s, but they were nearly not meant to be due to the severe financial difficulties that THQ underwent that would lead to the demise and dissolution of its original incarnation around the time *MX vs. ATV'*s fourth game, *MX vs. ATV Alive* was released. As THQ filed for bankruptcy, it sold its assets, including the *MX vs. ATV* franchise and its chief developer, Rainbow Studios. Nordic Games would eventually purchase these assets and revive Rainbow Studios, which would then proceed to continue the *MX vs. ATV* series yet again in 2014 with its fifth game, *MX vs. ATV Supercross*. The series would then make its leap into the eighth generation of video games with a port of *Supercross* to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, followed by one more sequel available on such consoles, *MX vs. ATV All Out*.

*All Out* became the first game in the series localized for Japan in 2021, with its Switch and PS4 versions released there. A seventh game, *MX vs. ATV Legends* was released on eighth and ninth-generation non-Nintendo platforms, along with personal computers, in the summer of 2022.

## Games

The seven games in the *MX vs. ATV* series are:

* *MX vs. ATV Unleashed* (ported to PSP as *MX vs. ATV On the Edge*)
* *MX vs. ATV Untamed*
* *MX vs. ATV Reflex*
* *MX vs. ATV Alive*
* *MX vs. ATV Supercross* (ported to PS4, Xbox One and PC as *MX vs. ATV Supercross Encore*)
* *MX vs. ATV All Out*
* *MX vs. ATV Legends*