Trials HD Review:

I have a confession. I'm not a big fan of motorcycles, racing, or arenas filled with dirt, but every once in awhile I like reviewing games that don't fit into my niche. Call it branching out or thinking outside the box, but every once in awhile a game like Trials HD comes along and reminds me that trying new things can yield some unexpectedly cool rewards.

Gameplay:

If I had to pick one word to describe most of the Arcade releases this summer, it would be "Simple." Playing Trials requires only two buttons and two directions (left and right) on the D-Pad or Left Thumbstick. You start each...well...trial...on the left side of a 2D level, and it's your job to drive to the right side of the level and cross the finish line. Along the way are ramps to jump obstacles that get in your way, which is really where the crux of the gameplay comes into play. Your posture is really everything in Trials. Leaning forward or back can make the most textbook jump into a gorgeous 720 somersault or a splat of epic failure. How you land, where you land, and you use of the gas and break determine whether or not you'll finish with a good time, a bad time, or a horrible, fiery-death-filled time.

It's amazing how much fun this can be...especially the crashes. I lost count of how many times I flipped wrong off the first ramp out of the gate, crashed, laughed, and did the exact same thing by mistake only to laugh again. The game also has a very smartly progressive campaign, taking you from a Beginner difficulty all the way up to an Extreme difficulty, each harder rank teaching you how to improve the entire time. Every level has plenty of checkpoints, as well, and if you wreck you can quickly retry from your last checkpoint. This practically guarantees that anyone can finish a level with a little patience and practice. The best times, of course, reward gold medals, so trial and error is the key to earning gold. It's just unexpectedly fun to fail in Trials, so much so that I ended up making a point many times to crash as humorously as possible.

Graphics:

Trials is a pretty game. It runs very smoothly and, what's more impressive, with tons of explosions and chaos in the background. Driving past crates of dynamite or barrels of gasoline will often set of chain reactions of explosions that will cause glass and plywood and shrapnel to go flying, and even finishing a level will often result in your hysterical demise. Nothing says "victory" like a stack of exploding barrels at the finish line, apparently. The lighting is also surprisingly nice, and while it's hard to notice while driving haphazardly across an obstacle course, I invite you to take the time to notice how nice the shadows look when the developer could have easily cut corners.

Audio:

The game's weakest point is its sound, which is just a generic hard rock substitute that you'll barely hear in the background. There isn't much voice acting to be heard, and what is there is somewhat obnoxious. However, neither the music nor the voice work gets in the way of the fun, since I was listening to my own laughing more than the soundtrack, anyway. The engine sounds and explosions sound pretty nice, though.

Longevity:

Trials HD has tons of lasting appeal. Along with the ramping level difficulty, gold medals to earn, achievements to unlock, and tournaments to compete in (which are like the normal levels except your time is final, there aren't retries), you can unlock additional bikes and skill challenges. You can even customize your rider and all of your motorcycles, and Trials comes with a full level design tool that will let you create your own levels and upload them to Xbox Live for others to enjoy. And yes, you can download other users' levels and play them, as well. Trials really does a wonderful job of showing what Xbox Live can do with user content, and I wish more games would follow its example in one way or another. Xbox 360 games may never catch up with PC games as far as user content is concerned, but Trials goes a long way in showing that the gap can be narrowed significantly closer than it has been.

Overall:

If you're looking for an addictive, fun skill game that anyone can enjoy and you're shopping on a budget, look no further than Trials HD for just 1200 Microsoft Points ($15.00 / £10.20).