Trials is
a time-based motorcycle game that is centered around winning medals.
Better times and fewer faults equal shinier awards. Beginning with
single-player career mode, you start at the bottom and work your way up
through license tests issued at the turn of each difficulty level. Each
test will require a certain amount of earned medals before you're
qualified to take it, so a good strategy is to grab as many gold medals
as you can in the easier earlier stages. As career mode progresses,
levels become increasingly more challenging to beat without any faults—frustration levels may rise.
But improving on your time is more than possible—your
desire to do better will undoubtedly force you to hit the restart
button at any imperfection in a run. If earning gold medals isn’t on
your agenda, you can simply enjoy the cinema of it all. The physics
engine creates a realistic yet over-the-top display that always has an
affinity for chaos. You will quickly learn that every degree in an angle
matters and over- or under-leveling your bike can result in disaster.
This makes adapting to courses and gaining momentum very important in
the success of runs.
After mastering some of your favorite stages, you can then take your
learned skills online and play in wild free-for-all course slugouts.
Each rider is equipped with unlimited resets; the only objective is to
finish first. But each fault or reset used counts against a final score
tallied after every race. There are a few different race types with
Supercross being the standard and most common. Four racers line up side
by side and dart off in pursuit of number one. Other courses allow for
opponents being turned into ghost data and you only see a hazy outline
of their riders. The best part of multiplayer is you can play locally—many “multiplayer” games recently haven’t had local options for some odd reason.
Other
modes include Tournament and Skill Game Circus. The latter steps
outside of the motorcycle box and generates mini-games, such as dirt
skiing, rolling marbles, and other unfocused shenanigans. Long after
tiring yourself of all the factory-operated modes, Track Editor will
keep playing time revving for months to come. Either spark up your
creative talent and build a custom track from the ground up or mooch
from other editing enthusiast and play through a wide range of quick
downloadable courses.
Not only can you manufacture motorcycle-groomed courses, but much like Skill Game Circus, producing random games like Jetman and Angry Bikers (based from the popular Angry Birds
series) can be done as well. Whichever mode you are in, backgrounds and
stage interactions display a dazzling and somewhat mesmerizing sight.
Environments present eye candy no one can turn away from. Dark levels
still have a shine that keeps everything charming and crisp. Levels like
the ones that rotate as you advance through spin in fluid fashion and
add new ideas that are a breath of fresh air.
Most everything in this sequel has been accounted for, except player and
bike customizing. Unfortunately, this leaves much room for improvement.
After purchasing just about everything in the garage store, there isn’t
much to update besides the colors of your attire and motorcycle. If
only I could take my spare cash in the game and transfer it into my real
bank account… if only…
The most important aspect of Trials Evolution
is its lasting power. I could play this over and over for a long time
without succumbing to boredom. It’s all so well-polished and with its
continuous updates of playable content, there’s no reason not to keep
playing. 3D graphics played on a 2D surface add a touch of smoothness
that Michael Jackson would be proud of. Once again, at $15 dollars, you
couldn’t ask for a better bargain. Now fans of the series definitely
won’t be able to contain excitement in anticipation for whenever RedLynx
wants to outdo themselves, again.