he ATV is a pretty goofy vehicle. It’s not quite a bike and not quite a car. It would seem that somewhere in between, there’s a machine that is fated to huck big tricks off big jumps and Black Rock Studios is there to make it happen. The team at Black Rock is no stranger to the four-wheelers, as the company formerly known as Climax has put out four other successful racing titles based around them. For their latest game, Pure, they decided to steer away from the sim and into the arcade arena, a bold move in a new industry full of obsessions with realistic physics and situations. Pure throws out conservative, realistic jumps and races for giant, over-the-top cliff jumps and blazing speeds.

When Disney Interactive bought Black Rock Studios, the staff was a little worried they would be stuck making kids games starring its iconic mouse mascot. Instead, the studio was given all the freedom they needed to make a game like Pure. With a focus on tricks, Pure is best described as more of an action-sports arcade title rather than a racing game. Gone are the realistic physics and race tracks. In their place is a super colorful and gorgeous world that has been created to give players a sense of vertigo every time they catch air.

ATVs aren’t exactly the fastest vehicles around, but since Black Rock has put a pretty big focus on the arcade-style gameplay, Pure really moves. Boosting is especially important as it will definitely give you the edge over the competition. Using your boost is also important before a jump because of the game’s focus on huge tricks. Completing tricks is what refills your three-stage boost meter. When the first stage is full, the player can execute a basic set of tricks. Pulling these off well will add more boosting and moving up to the second stage which could be described as the B tricks. The last level is pro tricks. The higher the level of trick, the more point a player will gain but the execution also take long and requires more air. The trick upgrades happen very quickly, even off one jump but if the player bails or fails to perform, the level goes back down much like a combo meter. There is a last level of tricks are signature tricks, achieved by pulling off totally awesome combos. These massive moves will yield max points and look totally crazy.

Pure is going to feature 50 events played out in one of seven locations. These seven unique places will be split in different ways to create 40 tracks. The courses in Pure range from your typical summer mountain top to an old roman city in ruin and are jam-packed with multiple paths in the form of forks in the road. But these forks don’t just veer left or right but also up and down. There will be a sense of 3D navigation as some of the paths will only be attainable by making large jumps into areas that may look like a bad idea in any other situation. There are a ridiculous amount of jumps scattered around any given track. Mastering these jumps will be key later on in the game by learning something any MX or ATV fan knows called preloading, a tactic that uses the suspension of the vehicle to get that little extra amount of “oomph” off of a jump.

Pure will feature 16 riders to choose from, but the real meat is the ATV itself. Not only will there be a ton of different rides to choose from when you start playing, Black Rock has also introduced a unique build-a-ride feature. Players will actually have a chance to make their own ride. As a career progresses, more parts will be unlocked. The parts are also tunable so a player’s quad will be totally unique to them. We’re told there will be “tons” of parts and there will be over 60,000 different combinations to be made. There’s also a pretty neat auto build mode where you select whether you want a machine geared towards freestyle or racing and will then be treated to a ton of parts flying around the screen building up the quad like something from a sci-fi movie.

Although we did not get to see it in action we were told that there will be a pretty robust freestyle mode to go along with the racing. After seeing the huge combos and ridiculous air time, one can only imagine a high scoring super trick fest. Pure will also feature a deep online experience and pretty much everything that can be done offline can also be done online with up to 16 players via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

It’s nice to see that over-the-top arcade style games aren’t totally dead in a world of realism and simulation. Disney and Black Rock Studios working together on a title like this really shows the publishers goal of broadening their portfolio. One thing’s for sure—a game like Pure that revolves around really just having a blast, it could really be a breath of fresh air for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this September.