Trials HD is the latest Xbox Live Summer of Arcade release. It is a simple game that will suck up tons of your time. If you enjoy the addicting motobike balance flash games online or grew up on Excitebike, you’ll want to read on.
Gameplay
Trials HD is a very simple concept, you have to get your motorbike from one side of the level to the other. But you need to complete the level as quick as possible while riding over various obstacles. The levels increase in difficulty as you progress through the game. The early levels are filled with climbs, jumps and some drops. But as you get further along you need to do loops, bigger jumps, and even solve puzzles (ie land on a spot properly to be lifted up to a higher spot). The gameplay is very addicting and the integration of your friends times right on the screen display will really push you to master each and every level.
Besides the normal game modes of completing the tracks, there is also a set of Skill Games. These are various games that require more skill then speed. One game finds you inside a gladiator ball where you need to roll the ball as far as possible without falling off your bike. Another skill game finds you puling a cart of bombs over a course, and you have to go as far as you can in one minute with out crashing or rattling the bombs to explosion.
And lastly if the included maps are not enough for you, you can jump into the very good Level Editor. The editor is a great addition but is very deep even in simple mode and might lead some who want a level quick to get frustrated. But for those with a ton of time your going to have fun, and when you get done with a level you can share it with your friends.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics are very good for a XBLA game. Explosions are a plenty and wood pieces, glass and other environment objects will break apart as you ride over them or clip them on your bike.
The sound is very basic, but does have some gems. The bikes sound generic, the soundtrack is a rock and electronic collection bit gets repetitive quick. The gems are the yells of enjoyment your biker might scream while catching some big air.
Overall
This is a great game and I fell in love with it as soon as I picked up the controller at E3. And now that I’ve played the full version with all the levels and skill games I’m even more addicted to it. There is no real online head to head play, but the integration of your friends times and stats into the display as you play is very good and you won’t even miss head to head play. There is also plans for DLC but we won’t be seeing it for a bit of time. If you want to pick-up one XBLA game this summer Trials HD should be the one.
A copy of Trials HD for Xbox 360 was provided to us for this review.
