nail'd is a high velocity, off-road arcade style racing game from Deep Silver. Players race quads or bikes at break neck speeds along some of the craziest and unique cross country tracks you've ever experienced. In the world of nail’d the laws of physics become slightly twisted allowing spectacular jumps along with just as stunning crashes. Racing against either AI or human players will have you barreling around turns, soaring across crevices, hurtling through gulleys, and zipping up hillsides.

In single player mode you race in a tournament which is divided into leagues. In order to progress through the leagues you must finish, and hopefully, win all of its events which are composed of various tracks. After completing a league you're rewarded with the opportunity to access new vehicle parts, better paint jobs and cooler looking driver suits. The game modes consist of Simple Race, Time Challenge, Stunt Challenge and Free Race which is only available in multiplayer mode. Although highly unlikely, if you ever get bored, you can alternatively set up your own race or tournament for your favorite tracks.

Every race starts out like a bat outta hell and you'll stay at the same speed and the more speed the better to make those jumps. Brakes? What brakes? We don't need no brakes! Actually the brakes were just added for show. The gameplay is relatively easy to pick up and you’ll easily get the hang of the controls letting you to quickly start enjoying the fun.

The attention and detail that the developers paid to the scenery is uniquely outstanding and a large number of crashes were caused by inadvertent sightseeing. The urge to change the view (you can twist and control your vehicle mid-flight) to the side as you're careening over a gulley is almost unbearable and sometimes well worth the ensuing bounce off a cliff wall. You’ll recognize some of the surroundings as they're modeled on real-life locations such as Yosemite Park.

An unexpected surprise that you will notice during the races is the outrageous soundtrack. The tracks are from the alternative rock music scene and consist of energetic rock, aggressive metal, richly laced riffs and punk rhythms. The developer's choice of music really sets the background to the extreme twists and turns and high altitude jumps of the challenging races.

As riotous as it is competing against the AI riders the real fun starts in online multiplayer mode against human riders. Instead of playing against emotionless and soulless competitors, here you get to compete against real players from around the world which inherently adds a more competitive nature to the races requiring the use of the quick reflexes you developed in single player mode. Watch out though because human players have a far greater tendency to engage in blocking and smashing techniques against you.

With all the things that were done right with nail'd, there are a few quirks you're going to get frustrated with. A better job could have been done with the starting race sequence. Every race starts with the same bikes, with the same outfits performing the same actions and, after a dozen races or so it gets a little irritating. Although nail'd does a great job or trying to keep the race rolling when you move too far off the beaten path by resetting you back on track, sometimes it does this in the middle of jump you could have made or when you've barely gotten off track and are already trying to get back in the race. We also found that the engine is a little too touchy when it comes to deciding whether your right tire really did miss that rock outcropping or you actually did catch the railing with your back tires. Fortunately, you're quickly reset and back in the game but it just seemed a little too much. Since there are plenty of positive aspects of nail'd you'll either hardly notice or will never mind.

With its stunning visuals and entertaining gameplay you’ll find yourself popping in the game for some excitement on a rainy afternoon. nail’d will challenge you but reward you with many hours of engaging game play. Techland’s Chrome4 engine adds some superb visual effects, enhancing the playability of the game. Although it’s possible that some purist racing enthusiasts may thumb their nose at the lenient take on the game physics, there’s no doubt that nail’d is a refreshing change from other racing games.

“What a riot!”