Developer: Tate Multimedia
Publisher: Tate Multimedia
Platform: PC, PS3, PS VITA, 3DS
Urban Trial Freestyle – Review
We’ve probably all played them at some point in our lives, the challenging Trial Flash games where it’s your assignment to guide a motorcyclist safely through an obstacle course. Sounds easy enough, you think? Well, I can only say that the title “Trial” fits the games perfectly as this basically summarizes the whole idea behind them. You keep trying again and again and again until you finally overcome that huge pile of barrels or that wobbling construction of planks and tires.
Urban Trial Freestyle brings this specific kind of game to the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, 3DS and PC. As I’ve always been a fan of the classic Flash games, I was wondering how well this game would find the balance between being frustratingly hard and offering a real but enjoyable challenge. The Vita was my platform of choice as I find this kind of game perfect to play when I have too little time to get into a more lengthy game.
Story
If you’re looking for a deep, interesting narrative about bikers, you’ll not find it here. In fact, you won’t find any kind of story at all. You just push the “Play game” button and choose one of the available tracks to try out.
Graphics
Nothing really special, the color palette used in this game is pretty dull with a lot of dark tinted backgrounds. More variation in environments would’ve been pleasant as well as they all look quite alike. The Vita version of Urban Trial lacks the detailed looks of the PS3 version which causes the game to show a rather washed-out appearance. Some effects like explosions and fire are acceptable but it’s just not as crispy clean as it could be.
Sound
The roaring of the motorcycles sounds solid enough and the “moaning” of your rider when he smacks his head against a lead pipe gives you an idea of how doing that same stunt in real life would probably uhm… hurt a bit. The background music however won’t win any awards for originality. There are some basic tracks mixed in the levels but sometimes there’s no music at all or you won’t even notice the songs while they are playing. Maybe putting some of your own music on while playing isn’t a bad idea.
Gameplay
Handling the bikes in Urban Trial Freestyle can be quite tricky throughout the different levels. The game often requires you to be very precise with balancing the motorbike and switching between accelerating and slowing down or even braking. Luckily, it’s possible to improve your bikes so they have a higher acceleration or better handling.
Speaking of adapting certain things to your will, customization in this game is not really extensive. For example, only 3 different kinds of motor components are unlockable and they increase effectiveness in 3 categories: max speed, acceleration and handling. Sometimes you’ll have to experiment with different upgrades to see what suites a course best. One time speed will be the most essential and in the next track, you’ll find handling of the utmost importance.
There are 5 different areas to play through with each 8 levels. In each level, you can try to find all bags of cash (which you can use to purchase better motorcycles or upgrade them) or to gain as much stars as possible (you can have a maximum of 5 stars per level). You’ll be able to play a Time Attack Modeand a Stunt Mode on every course. Time Attack Mode speaks for itself, the goal is to get the fastest time. Stunt Mode however is a bit more interesting as this mode will test you on a number of performances, for example: jumping as high or as far as you can. Besides those kinds of levels, there’s also a Challenges Mode where you have to use your tricks and abilities you’ve practiced throughout the game to complete 5 additional tracks under all kinds of conditions (imagine gravity being twisted around and things like that).
A cool addition in Urban Trial Freestyle is that players can take it up against a ghost of one of their PSN-friends who also played the game. A red ghost version of their character appears at the beginning of the track and like this, it gives you the feeling of having some real competition while roaming across the course. Although it’s quite enjoyable to see how good or bad your friends completed each stage, it’d be even more fun if you could actually directly compete against them in an online multiplayer session.
Conclusion
You can best compare Urban Trial Freestyle to a snack that you eat around 4PM. It’ll fill you up for a small amount of time, but eventually, you’ll still be hungry for some more appetizing food. The ability to compete indirectly against your friends adds some replay value but the tracks are simply not creative enough to keep you coming back for another try. This is by no means a bad game, but it could’ve been much more than this.
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