The extremely popular Trials HD is followed up by an even greater and more
expansive sequel.
Trials Evolution is a horizontally scrolling motorbike racer, similar to Excitebike or Joe Danger. You'll be challenged with riding a precariously
balanced motorbike through dozens of maps filled with hills, cliffs,
hazards, and lifts. You control your bike with the left analog stick and
break/accelerate with the LT and RT buttons. Combined with an excellent 60
FPS physics engine and plenty of well designed and creative maps, Trials
Evolution manages to wring every bit of challenge and depth out of its
simple control scheme. You'll be rated in each map based on time taken and
mistakes made, with online multiplayer and leaderboards with replays
available. Remarkably, there's almost no stat progression other than
unlocking a few extra bikes which have the potential to be faster than
earlier bikes, but also more difficult to balance and control.
The single player campaign consists of several maps. Most maps are locked
away until you reach a certain medal count, similar to Burnout. Medals are
rewarded for meeting a certain time limit and mistake count per map. After
earning enough medals, you'll be invited to play a "license" course and
unlock more maps. License courses serve as both a tutorial and test,
teaching essential techniques for progress the increasingly hazardous
terrain. Not every technique is very well explained, though. You'll probably
end up learning far more from watching some of the top ranked leaderboard
replays than you will in the license tests, like the "bunny hop" for
example. The challenge level quickly ramps up to a very high level,
demanding precise execution and control of the left analog stick to balance
your bike. Sometimes the terrain becomes so extreme that you'll pass or fail
an obstacle by a centimeter of the analog sticks position. Those who aren't
up to the challenge might consider Joe Danger instead, which only becomes
difficult when trying to score well or grab out of reach collectibles.
To keep things interesting, you can play through several "Skill Games" where
the rules of the game may be radically altered, sometimes taking away your
breaks or limiting your bike gas, or even changing your bike into a rolling
marble or a flying UFO, or using your rider as a human catapult. Unlike most
Xbox 360 games, the achievements in Trials Evolution are all challenge based
and you'll get almost no freebies or "collect em ups" to pad your gamerscore
with. Expect to work for those points.
Trials Evolution's physics engine runs at a solid 60 FPS. Restarts after
falling off your bike are nearly instant, relieving any sort of load time
frustration from making a mistake. Music tends to be forgettable generic
rock and grunge, and sound effects could use improvement, but they aren't a
big part of the game anyway.
One of the greatest additions to Trials Evolution is the full featured map
editor. The basic editor is suitable for beginner map makers, while the
advanced editor feels more or less like the development tools used to create
the official maps, with just about every function imaginable, including
altering the game rules similar to the Skill Games maps, providing a level
of editorial control and game rule alteration not seen in a console game
since Little Big Planet 2. Maps can be uploaded online, shared, rated, and
even competed in with their own leaderboards. Some of the maps I downloaded
and tried ranged from fun rollercoaster style rides to maddeningly difficult
challenges to the completely absurd.
Trials Evolution is one of the best arcade style racers on any console with
tight controls, excellent challenges, full multiplayer options, and an
expansive map editor. It deserves its place as one of the best selling Xbox
Live Arcade games ever.
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Simple yet precise and tight controls
- Full range of multiplayer options with leaderboards
- Expansive level editor and online level sharing
- Wide range of quality official map content
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- Simple controls and lack of customization may bore some players
- Could have used better tutorials and trick demonstration
- Forgettable music
- Official map content should probably have more easy to mid difficulty maps
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Quote: "Trials Evolution is one of the best arcade style racers on any console with
tight controls, excellent challenges, full multiplayer options, and an
expansive map editor." |
Reviewed by Matthew Emirzian | 05.08.12 | Xbox 360 |
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Similar Games: Joe Danger: SE (8.5)
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