It must be hard for a publisher to be forever identified with cute, cuddly farmyard animals. Ask Disney, they should know.

It's no surprise then to see Disney branching out a bit with their choice of material, and while we're unlikely to see Manhunt 3 being picked up by the entertainment giant, they've made a couple of inroads so far this year with content that's likely to generate a bit of interest amongst the more mature gaming segment.

Disney Interactive (a subsidiary, of course) released Turok earlier this year, managing to not only revive a franchise older than its subject matter, but also prove that it's best to check the competition's release dates before offering up a FPS to the market. Prince Caspian came shortly afterwards, which to be fair was actually a pretty good title, albeit shamefully overlooked by too many gamers.

Disney's latest effort to launch a serious attack on our attention is Pure, an off-road quad-bike extravaganza in which you compete to perform the most gravity-bending stunts possible whilst soaring through the air and offering up jeers at fellow players. After playing some preview code earlier today, I came away with the unnerving impression that as gamers, we might need to start taking Disney a little more seriously in future.

Pure consists of a World Tour mode, Single Event, Trial Mode and even an online mode in which a total of sixteen players can race. Our preview code was limited to a number of Single Event races, although we could see from the menu structure that the World Tour option is laid out in much the same way we've come to expect from other racing titles, in which you compete at various locations, unlocking further achievements as you progress. Interestingly enough, there's a New Zealand track, consisting of a "volcano race", which was nice of the Brighton, UK development team to include.

Another aspect that was unfortunately missing from this build was the initial bike creation. We've been told that our quad-bikes can be built from scratch, utilizing the Garage, which you have further access to in-game for replacement parts and upgrades. Once your bike has been built, you then proceed to a kind of proving ground, where you're given the low-down on how to handle the bike properly, and how to pull off basic stunts. It's here that you quickly realise this isn't Flatout with leather outfits - there's a real skill to pulling off even relatively simple moves, and if you can't beat the clock around one lap the game won't let you progress to the World Tour.

Manoeuvring your relatively light-weight bike consists of accelerating with the right trigger (on the Xbox 360 version) and steering with the left joystick. Once you build up enough speed, and happen to find a worthy ramp somewhere along the track, you can use the joystick to rock forward, then back to pitch the bike up whilst selecting what sort of move to do with the A, B or Y buttons.

This selection is further modified by the eight choices you can make with the left joystick, as well as a further modifier in the form of the shoulder-button, which obviously allows for a healthy number of combinations.

The catch here is that when you start the race, you only have the A button unlocked, which can only ever provide you with the most basic stunts. Once you've pulled off a few of these, the B button is unlocked, followed by the Y. Each stunt you do (provided it's not a duplicate of one you've already done in that race) gives you "Juice", which (you guessed it) behaves just like a nitro boost, propelling you along and allowing more elaborate stunts to be performed over smaller jumps.

We've been told there's over thirty tracks in total, and perhaps up to sixty types of stunts that can be achieved, including bonus-type jumps that border on the crazy side of elaborate. We witnessed two of these - one, called the "Superman", saw us leap off a huge precipice and hold on to the rear of the bike in a classic flying Superman pose. Another allowed us to shimmy around the bike in mid-flight much like an Olympic gymnast on a wooden horse.

Unlocking bigger and better stunts could alone provide enough entertainment to want us coming back for more.

The graphics are some of the best we've seen on any console racing title to date, complete with realistic mud splatter and a huge draw distance. The latter being particularly handy, as timing your landing is crucial if you want to stay ahead of the pack, even when the AI is set to "rookie" mode. Happily, if you slam off the bike you respawn practically instantly, but the bone-crunching sound you hear is reason enough to look before you leap.

The two Italian tracks we witnessed allowed multiple paths to be taken, this non-linear approach having worked well in the past for similarly themed racers. Some paths appear to offer more stunts in a riskier environment, whilst other paths may be a bit tamer yet ultimately safer for someone with a comfortable lead.

Even if massively outrageous stunts aren't your cup of tea, the game can be played in a sprint mode, in which you can simply concentrate on behaving in a sensible fashion and keeping your feet firmly planted on the pedals.

Likewise, for the daredevil, you can hit the freestyle mode, which will see you soaring through the air and collecting fuel to make it to the end of the lap.

Our time with Pure was brief, but we've been promised review code shortly, so stay tuned!

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Want gameplay footage? Check out the "Wyoming" trailer over at GP Downloads (39MB).