Trials Evolution Review
Developer Redlynx
Publisher Ubisoft
Platform Xbox Arcade
Release Date Out Now.
Trials HD still remains one of the bestselling titles in Microsoft’s Arcade range and rightly so, it’s fun, challenging and when it comes down to it simply a really enjoyable game. It will take lot to improve on Trial HD but that is just what Trials Evolution does without putting one foot on the ground.
Trials Evolution is set around Trial bikes, a super powered, super light version of a dirt bike. They are used to traverse difficult obstacle courses. Riders must balance the power of the bike and their own weight to complete incredibly complex obstacles. The R1 trigger is your throttle, the L1 trigger acts as the brakes and the left stick controls the riders lean. This can be used to control momentum make jumps with little room for a run up or balance the bike back out so it lands correctly.
The guys at Redlynx have a brilliant physics engine built into the game that not only balances your bike as you hit the ground at all kinds of angles but also results in some hilarious spills for your rider. It is up to you to time your take offs and landing to perfection to not loos speed by bouncing up in the air when the wrong wheel hits first.
It is a 3D enviroment but you only ever travel in a fixed 2D line, that means simply all you have to worry about is staying upright. Easy huh?
Keeping your bike moving in the early levels is quite easy you just gun the throttle and hold on for dear life. As the levels ramp up so does the difficulty and more often than not speed is your enemy. Take a very steep hill for example, the natural thing Is to think you need to get as much speed as possible and get as high up as you can, but doing this results in the bike tilting back you loosing traction and rolling backwards down the hill. What you need to do is control the power with a low rev and lean forward to keep the bike’s back wheel in contact with the ramp.
Although the later levels do get “controller smashingly” difficult the game has such a charm about it players still return for more and more punishment. Passing the levels are incredibly rewarding, but also the simple things offer a lot of reward too. For example using the left stick to flick the bike over an obstacle you were on a head on collision with only a fraction of a second earlier.
So far that sounds very similar to the industrial warehouse Trials HD took place in but there is much more. The developers have created some incredible settings and visually it is a good as anything you will see in full titles. The different levels have different themes, simple fields where you jump rocks and fences all to way to the oddest of location like a Normandy beach landing.
They also have a number of sillier items too, when your rider wears skies, tries to fly by flapping his arms with two planks attached or when you take to the skies in a UFO.
The madder it gets the further the game gets from a Trial bike game, while the premise is still there this is more a puzzle game as a motorsport game.
Overall. : Trial Evolution is a great game, the presentation is brilliant and the music, the visuals, the controls along with the quick loading times all mean this game is constant in your face fun.
The silliness does lead to amazing set pieces but personally I preferred the more realistic levels all though the roller coaster level is breath taking.
Score : 9/10
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