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Fresh off their recent success with Trials 2: Second Edition for the PC, developer RedLynx is now set to release an updated version, aptly named Trials HD, on August 12th for the Xbox Live Arcade. We’ve been playing this downloadable-only title for several weeks now and haven’t been able to stop. Near perfect in every aspect, here is our Fact and Opinion review of Trials HD.
Fact: Trials HD is a physics-based motorbike game, but it’s not a racing game. Rather, players are faced with increasingly-difficult obstacle courses to navigate their bike through, and are timed on their performance. While the game’s visuals are fully 3D, the gameplay operates on a two-dimensional side-scrolling plane. The player controls acceleration and braking with the right and left triggers respectively, and you can shift the rider’s weight backwards and forwards by tilting the left analog stick. Only by carefully and precisely controlling the weight and balance of the bike will you be able to maneuver through the intricate paths and obstacles that make up each track.
Early stages consist of simple ramps, gaps, and valleys, and successfully navigating to the finish line is usually no more difficult than tilting the bike in midair to land parallel to the ground, so as to avoid a nasty crash. As the game progresses the challenge ramps accordingly, and by the later levels you’ll face seemingly impossible tasks, like riding up the face of a nearly vertical series of pipes, or balancing the bike atop a huge metal sphere and using the bike’s tires to roll the sphere over a pit full of explosives. Thankfully, you’re not punished for dying; you just instantly reappear at the last checkpoint. No matter how impossible they might initially seem, every challenge the game throws at you is possible by carefully manipulating the bike’s inertia, balance, and speed.
In addition to the dozens of pre-made tracks that make up the main game, players have access to a robust level creator program. In fact, the level creator is capable of recreating anything you see in the main game; through a simple drag-and-drop interface, players can add ramps, platforms, obstacles, explosives, and tweak them all in all kinds of ways. Created stages can then be shared on Xbox Live.
Opinion: Though you’re on a bike the whole time, the game shares more in common with platformers than it does with the racing genre – you’re almost always leaping huge gaps and trying to land tricky jumps. The realistic physics let you pull off any physically-possible stunt, but you must learn to be very gentle with the controls, especially in later levels; accelerating too hard, or not enough, or shifting your weight too far, or not far enough, can spell the difference between sublimely executed success and bone-crunching failure.
It can be pretty frustrating sometimes, especially in the later stages when you’re required to pull off one near-impossible stunt after another in quick succession, but it’s also very addictive and hard to put down. Even when a particular section stymies your progress, you’ll want to keep retrying again and again until you master it and can move on. It’s the kind of game that can easily keep you playing long after you intended to quit, as “just one more try” can quickly turn into hours lost trying to bypass one tricky obstacle after another.
The incredibly deep level editor is also addictive and fun in its own way. Tweaking ramp angles and obstacle placements until they’re just right is easy to get into thanks to the editor’s user-friendly controls, and test-running a stage is as simple as pushing a button. Even if you’re not the type to get into making your own levels, the dedicated community that’s bound to spring up is sure to keep players stocked with as many crazy physics challenges as they could possibly want. The developers’ included levels hint at some of the devious effects possible with the tools included, and as games like LittleBigPlanet have shown, if you give the players the tools, they can come up with some inventive and surprising stages.
Judging by its unassuming title and rather bland gameplay description, it would be easy to label Trials HD as simple shovelware. But to underestimate this Live Arcade title would be a serious mistake. Though it uses just a few simple gameplay mechanics, Trials HD is as exciting, challenging, satisfying,and rewarding as you could ever dream. In fact, this is hands down the best Xbox Live Arcade title to date, and the only real community-based counter Microsoft has against Sony's LittleBigPlanet.
Love this game!
this game looks awesome!
This really is an awesome game - do yourself a favor and get the demo.
Nice score and i agree, this game is amazing. For only 15$ you get alot more than so many retail games!