Trials Fusion

Never have I found a game so fun, but at the same time so furiously frustrating as Trials. I played Trials when it first appeared back in 2000, and have played pretty much every iteration since.

Trials Fusion is the latest installment from RedLynx of the dirt bike racing/trial game. If you don’t know what the game is about, essentially all you have to do it make it from a start point to the finish line on your little dirt bike. All whilst traversing various obstacles, from jumps, drop offs and hill climbs. The controls are as simple as throttle and break, and then lean back and forward to help you balance. As you progress the levels get harder and harder to the point where you want to rip your hair out through sheer frustration of just missing a jump for the last 40 times. Thankfully these tracks are only saved for the last few ‘expert’ events.

Frustrating as it may be, there is something slightly addictive about the game. It’s hard to just do one course. For me it’s always a case of “just one more”, and maybe that’s because they don’t take very long to do. Depending on the difficulty they can take 30 seconds up to 10 minutes.

With all the previous versions of Trials once I’ve got to the expert levels, I have usually given up because I just can’t do them, but with Fusion I’ve persevered with a ‘can do’ attitude. Some levels I’ve had to restart checkpoints, literally, hundreds of times. The sense of relief when you finally make it up or over that ridiculously stupid obstacle is pretty good.

There are 8 different areas each with a number of tracks within them, as you may have guessed each area gets slightly more difficult. I’ve managed to complete all up to the 7th area, I just need to win a couple more Gold medals to unlock the final ‘Master’ area, although I’m not confident that when I do, I will be able to beat the levels.

Tricks have now been included in the game, and add just a little more fun to it. There are specific events for doing tricks, whereby the more points you get the better your medal will be, but you can also pull tricks throughout most of the levels. They are simple to do, you basically just move the right stick in a direction and away you go. They can take a while to master, and linking them up for multiple tricks can be…. tricky… but once you nail a few, it looks pretty sweet.

For an added bit of fun each track has a number of challenges to do, from full throttle and no leaning, to uncovering secrets withing the levels. They do certainly add a good amount of replay-ability to the levels, and make you want to head back to them to see what you missed. What I have found however, is that some of them can be even more frustrating to just beating the level.

Multiplayer is also present, although currently only local, and not across Xbox Live, honestly, I don’t know why this is…. Due to it being only local, I haven’t actually tried it yet. I’m sure its a blast though.

You can also create your very own tracks to share across the world, I’ve sampled a few from various people, and some of the imaginations of people are very interesting. One particular ‘track’ saw me having to launch my rider from the bike and land in a tiny hole about 1000 metres away… it was odd. I’m sure you could spend hours and hours tweaking tracks to your hearts content.

To be honest there isn’t really a lot more to say about the game, it’s a pretty basic concept, but they way in which it is delivered is fun and challenging. The level design is interesting, with quite a lot going on around you. However its pretty packed with content that can keep you busy for hours. I’ve been having an absolute blast playing it, and I would highly recommend getting it.

If you are thinking of getting it, get it digitally. In store versions seem to be about £15 more expensive.

– Will