My theory is that there are two kinds of people that play extreme sports video games: The first (and smaller) group consists of people actively engaging in the sport the game is based on, whether that’s doing it themselves, watching videos of it, or just generally having a big interest in it.
The second, larger group (which I belong to) are the people who have never really tried the sport themselves, are probably terrified by the thought of potentially breaking a bone or getting bruises, but appreciate that these sports are cool as hell and love that there are digital ways for us to get involved.
I’ve played a ton of extreme sports games and can say confidently that MAVRIX by Matt Jones is going to satisfy both groups of gamers.
Joining Matt Jones and his twin brother Jono in their virtual playground inspired by the Welsh countryside, a location which mountain biking fans worldwide will love, I got a great insight into how MAVRIX came about. Matt’s an accomplished mountain bike slope style competitor and Red Bull athlete. With nearly 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Matt Jones, the mere fact I’m writing this explainer is probably raising eyebrows with that first group of gamers. Jono is a downhill race competitor himself, and between them they could see that there was no authentic mountain biking game on the market.
It was fascinating to hear the rationale behind the game. We’re at a point in time where extreme sports games seem to be skewed more towards the sim end of the spectrum, but for mountain biking there’s no equivalent to something like Session or Storror. These guys grew up playing extreme sports games such as Sunny Garcia Surfing, Tony Hawks Pro Skater and, one of my personal favourites, Downhill Domination. They have a huge love for these games and wanted to make something of their own that blends the thrills and spills of those more arcadey titles with more realistic elements that fans of the sport have been hankering for.
I spent an hour in the game with Matt and Jono as we pedalled around the gorgeous environment. We started off going over the fundamentals, and the game reminded me very much of Session in the way it’s built around a realistic weightiness that dictates what you can and can’t do. Bikes behave as they would in real life, and you’ve got access to both the front and back brakes giving you a lot of control over how you move through the world. You steer your bike with the left stick while the right controls your body. A quick flick down and then up again will do a bunny hop, and when done at the end of a ramp you can get some serious air.
Roll the right stick from down to left or right and you’ll whip in the air, which feels incredibly slick and when you land it too it’s hard not to smile at how smooth it all feels. It’s a system that’s simple to learn but, based on my many, many crashes, is going to be difficult to master. The game absolutely nails the movement, which is the most important thing in a game like this. Getting around the world feels so satisfying, and the huge 10x10km environment has plenty of variety to keep things interesting.
Although the game is mainly built around events, with tech and race challenges dotted around the world, there are also open roads which you can ride along if you fancy a couple of minutes of downtime to take in the sights around you. Ski lifts can be found throughout the world and are unlocked by completing the aforementioned challenges, and they make for a great reward as they’ll get you to those higher points on the map where you can then race back down. We took a ski lift to the top of a mountain and then joined a challenge that took us back down to the base by way of a series of jumps going over a lake. The mix of speed while trying to master the controls and physics was exhilarating and left me desperate to play more of it.
While doing this Matt casually told me that this was actually a real event that he’d completed about a year ago, which makes the inclusion in the game all the more impressive. He said that using the included first-person mode did a great job of emulating the real experience, and while I can’t confirm this, it does add an extra layer of excitement to the game. It’s one of those features I feel every extreme sports game should have and I’m pleased it’s here in MAVRIX. It lets me pretend I’m actually brave and skilled enough to be doing this stuff in real life.
As we were bombing around completing challenges and I was slamming into more trees and rocks than I was comfortable with, the guys gave me some background on the Career mode. It’s built around earning sponsorships, so the better you do in the game, the more sponsorship opportunities open up to you. I’m told there are plenty of popular mountain biking brands here so fans of the sport will enjoy sinking their teeth into this. With sponsorships comes Moolah, an earned in-game currency you can use to customise your character and make them look as awesome as possible.
The roadmap for the game sounds impressive, with pro riders coming soon, along with a more advanced trick system and more. The game is also perfectly suited to multiplayer too, and while there were only three of us in the server I was told that they’d tested 50 people before and the game ran without issue. 50 people racing down Steeze Mountain or around Flow Fields sounds like absolute chaos in the best way.
One area I didn’t get much chance to learn more about was the soundtrack. Every extreme sports gamer knows how important the soundtrack is, and I’m sure our music tastes have all been influenced by games we played in our formative years. MAVRIX features in-game radio, and while we had it off so that we could chat, Matt and Jono were both enthusiastic about the tracks they’d been able to secure for the game.
Another area I can’t properly comment on is the visuals. My PC set up is actually just an ROG Ally X, and while it’s a beast of a handheld PC, it was below the minimum specs for MAVRIX so I didn’t get to see the advanced visual flourishes that Matt and Jono were enjoying, such as foliage moving in the wind as you whiz past at 40mph. That said, they were confident that on a good rig the game looked gorgeous, and again with first-person mode in the mix it can feel very realistic. While my humble handheld didn’t quite cut the mustard, I was still able to comfortably play the game at 1080p with a slightly ropey (but still playable) framerate. I think it’s a testament to how much fun the game is that I was able to look past this and still come away telling the lads at the end that I thought it was “fucking fantastic”.
While the real test will be how much content the game launches with, the brothers were confident that the roadmap will keep giving people new reasons to play. From my hour with the game I’m also confident that it’s a game that people will make their own fun in, setting up their own lines or making their own race routes with friends. Although it’s early days, I’m very excited to see where Matt and Jono take the game when it launches into Steam early access on July 24th 2025.
