Pure is an ATV racing game that was developed by the studio that brought you the ATV Offroad series. Needless to say, when you see that the game is being published by Disney Interactive, you may not expect a top tier game; however Pure is a delightful surprise.

Remember the original Motorstorm on the PlayStation 3 and its jaw dropping visuals? Well, take them and turn them up another notch with Pure. The visuals are simply amazing to the point that you truly feel as though you are in the game – when you prepare to launch yourself off a hill your breath is taken away as you begin flight. The puddles of water your ATV drives through shimmer in the light and are dark in the shadows – the splashes of the water against your bike are very impressive. This is a first rate game, visually. The sound also deserves special mention. The roar of the engines is very loud and your character will visualize your joy as you pass or knock out other riders. The agony of defeat is also well done audio-wise. No swearing of course, but you’ll know you messed up.

The idea is to race in three different ways: sprint, which is just a normal race; freestyle, where you have to earn the highest point total through tricks and power ups while keeping your gas tank full; finally there’s a race mode where the object is to cross the finish line first but you’ll be able to perform many jumps to fill up your boost meter.

Yes, that’s right, there’s a boost meter (called a thrill bar here) – but the way you fill it is novel: through a series of jumps, you power up the meter. You can either use the boost to accelerate or you can build up the boost meter to allow you to do a second and third level of tricks. If you max out the boost bar you can then perform a special trick. This is a creative risk/reward strategy that adds a good deal of fun to the game: do you boost to speed up at the risk of losing your special jumps, or do you not boost in order to get that special jump? It’s a very interesting twist.

The customization of the ATV is simply amazing. Disney Interactive claims that there are 65,000 possible customizations to the ATV you can build – while some are superficial, others affect the control of the ATV. Each ATV you create is different and while you can be as anal retentive as you like, you can also have the game randomly generate vehicles for you. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock tracks, more bike add-ons and various new special moves. At first you are stuck with an ATV that is pretty ho-hum and it’s up to you to win races to improve your ride.