Reflex sports over three dozen tracks, and many of them whip across open landscapes, across mountain ranges, and through forest paths. Anything goes so long as you get to the next gate, although straying too far from the beaten path is usually a quick route to disaster. I wasn’t able to race on every track, but it seems like Rainbow Studios has struck a solid balance between the claustrophobia of Pure and the haphazard rambling of Fuel.

The tighter tracks, as seen in the supercross mode, require a new degree of technical riding. Reflex reminds us that for every 100-foot back flip, there is a hairpin turn to a slippery hill-climb. The emphasis on technical riding is possible because of full-body control. Instead of limiting weight distribution to forward and backward movements, players can now lean into turns, fine-tune airborne maneuvers, and lose the bike to a nasty skid just as they would in real life. With the new Rider Reflex system, and arrow pops up to let you know when you need to quickly shift your weight to avoid a faceplant.

There seems to be a struggle between unforgiving simulation and outrageous action. Could a sport truck really launch twice as high as a MX bike? I’m not really sure. I do know that a minor fender-bender at 20mph wouldn’t send a truck into a skyward barrel-roll, nor should any amount of Rider Reflex save someone from a nosedive into a tree. There were other writers at the preview, and most avoided ATVs at all costs. Those that didn’t usually found themselves lagging by a half-a-lap and getting mysteriously tossed on straightaways. Staying on an ATV is so difficult I mistakenly assumed that Rider Reflex was an ATV-only feature.

My favorite part of the preview was hitting up the Freestyle events, which feature track designs I never expected outside of a Tony Hawk game. Tricks are easy to perform with a few flicks of the analog stick, and there’s a huge list that can be strung together, from basic Nac Nacs and Supermans to crowd-pleasing Shaolins and the Kiss of Death. They only get better with backflips. Multiplayer was also an enjoyable, but full impressions will have to wait for the review due to some technical difficulties. Suffice to say that Reflex supports 12-person races and the return of everyone’s favorite mode – Tag.

I’m fairly impressed by Rainbow Studios’ progress with the MX vs. ATV series. The common theme of the genre has been “go big or go home,” with higher levels of freakish speeds and outlandish jumps being the closest thing to advancement. Reflex has those too, but the level of technical riding required simply isn’t possible without Rider Reflex and the full-body controls. I’m also looking forward to digging in (literally) to the other tracks and seeing just how heated the multiplayer sessions can be.