Pure is an off-road quad bike trick racing video game. It is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows. The game was published by Disney Interactive Studios and developed by Black Rock Studio, which was previously known as Climax Racing. Climax Racing created the MotoGP and ATV Offroad Fury series. The game was announced on February 14, 2008. It has a trick system that gives players speed boosts when they perform tricks correctly.

Gameplay

Players compete on quad bikes in locations around the world, performing amazing tricks from very high places. There are three different types of races:

The game uses a trick system that keeps track of the tricks players perform. If a player repeats the same trick, it becomes "stale" and gives fewer points. New tricks are called "fresh" and earn more points. Each trick adds to a player's "thrill bar." As the bar fills up, players unlock higher-level tricks. If the bar is full and the player jumps high enough, they can perform a "special trick." The bar can decrease if the player uses boost or crashes after failing a trick.

Development

Pure's director, Jason Avent, stated that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game would operate the same way. The game had a marketing budget of $10 million.

At E3 2008, Pure received the Best Racing Game of E3 2008 award from the Game Critics Awards, the Editors’ Choice Award from Official Xbox Magazine (U.S.), the Best Driving Game award from GameTrailers.com, and the Best Racing Game on Xbox 360 award from IGN.

A demo was made available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on September 4, 2008. The demo includes one level of play. The PC version of the demo was released in October 2008.

During the 2009 holiday season, Pure and Lego Batman were included with certain Xbox 360 packages as a bonus.

Reception

Pure received positive reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, the PC version was released and published by E-Frontier on June 12, 2009. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released later on June 25, 2009. The PlayStation 3 version was published by Codemasters. All versions were titled Extreme Racing: Pure (エクストリーム・レーシング -PURE- , Ekusutorīmu Rēshingu -Pure-). Famitsu gave the console versions scores of one 8 and three 7s for a total of 29 out of 40. Famitsu X360 gave the Xbox 360 version scores of one 7 and three 8s for a total of 31 out of 40.

GamePro gave the Xbox 360 version four stars out of five. It described the game as "a simple, straightforward game: go fast and pull out your best tricks. Fortunately, there's more challenges if you want to work harder." Michael Lafferty of GameZone gave the PlayStation 3 version 8.8 out of 10. He said, "Pure fun, Pure entertainment, Pure eye candy – that's what you get with this title. The game does have some small problems, but nothing important. What is interesting about this title are the tracks, the air, and the way the terrain affects your ATV. This is great fun." Edge gave the PlayStation 3 version seven out of ten. It said, "The pleasure of launching into a panoramic, dolly-zoomed abyss and triggering an implausible series of aerial gymnastics is as primal a thrill as it ever was."

During the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the game was nominated for the "Racing Game of the Year" award. The award was won by Burnout Paradise.