Avatar Motocross Madness

Avatar games are a thing now. No longer are they confined to the corners of the XBLIG channel, nor limited to awards given out to players. Microsoft has fully embraced our cuddly little self-representations, and now not only are they featured in Xbox LIVE Arcade games, but players can now also earn rewards for them via the Avatar Famestar program. Motocross Madness is one of the titles utilizing the program, and as such players can unlock rewards in the game or use rewards from other games in it.

Motocross Madness is the third game in the Motocross Madness series, which hasn’t seen an installment since May 2000. It also features a large open world players can explore when not racing for the first place trophy. It can be explored alone or with friends — locally via two player splitscreen and online with up to eight players. PlayXBLA’s XBLA Alex and XBLA Vulcan showcased the game via a livestream on Twitch.TV. The game is in development at Bongfish, the studio responsible for XBLA games Harm’s Way and Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect, both of which are solid games. It currently has no virtual street date, but PlayXBLA are scheduled to run a second preview today on their Twitch.TV channel.

Update #1: As our ever-vigilant tipper @lifelower points out it looks like Microsoft has dropped Avatar from the game’s title, naming it simply Motocross Madness. Seems this idea of renaming sequels as though their predecessors never existed (looking at you, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted) is becoming a trend.

Update #2: We’ve received word from the developer that Motorcross Madness will indeed be able to play 2-player splitscreen and Xbox LIVE simultaneously. That means you and a guest can take on the world.

Source: PlayXBLA, @lifelower