Price: $15.00 | Release Date: August 12, 2009 | ESRB: T (Teen)

5 Stars - Amazing, a must buy game

My controller slams against the floor. I am standing in my room, breathing heavily. My 360 is humming away, mocking me. I pick up the pad, determined not to sink any lower: I will best this game today, I think to myself. I press B and hold the right trigger, and watch as my little motorcycle dude goes up a ramp and flies through the air, only for the bike to flip from under me as I land. I had forgotten to adjust my posture. Damn.

I am playing Trials HD. The game is great, extremely addictive. It has that "One more go" feel to it, though perhaps "30 more goes" is more appropriate. The game is incredibly hard and testing; it has angered me far more then any other game ever has and for that I love it.

It's a simple idea. You control a little guy riding his motor-bike around obstacle course type levels. You control how fast he goes and you control his posture, the direction he leans in. It's essentially a 4 button game.
That is why I was surprised to find how deep the gameplay truly is. It offers five different difficulty levels, beginner, easy, medium, hard and extreme. As you might expect, they become progressively harder with each tier. There are also several different bikes to choose from, some are faster, some have better grip and some have great acceleration. You can also customise your bike and character to make your experience even more unique.

Though it essentially boils down  to "Get from point A to point B" you cannot simply hold down the throttle button and wait. You must be constantly alert, constantly making little life saving changes to the rider's posture so that you won't crash and burn.

That is what I love about the game. When you have spent half an hour trying a particular section and you have just hit the reset to last checkpoint button for the 247th time and suddenly it all clicks and you breeze past the obstacle and hit the next few checkpoints with ease, that is when the game shines. That feeling of accomplishment is absolutely fantastic. It is a feeling that I wish would be present throughout every game.

Even the way you crash is well designed: it never feels unfair, you always know it was you who made the mistake. The death animations are great too, though surprisingly bloody. They add a little bit of comedy to the frustration of your death.

The developers put in a few extra little details to make the game even better. You can easily view your friends' times and scores as well as view the world rankings. There are also replay videos of the best in the world if you need help with a particular level. These all help to put a competitive edge to the gameplay.

There are also some addictive mini games.They range from seeing how far you can make your guy fly after a crash to seeing how far you can carry explosives without them going off! The distances your friends achieved are all clearly marked along the way, once again bringing in the competitive edge.

You can also download user created maps as well as make some of your own, and this helps to greatly extend the game's lifespan beyond what the core game offers; and believe me, the core game offers a lot. Between the five difficulty levels, the mini games and tournaments (which see you trying to get through assortments of various levels without making a certain number of mistakes) the game offers so much content that user created levels almost seem unnecessary. Almost but not quite!

THE VERDICT: At 1200 Microsoft points I believe that Trials HD is a great bargain. It will provide you with endless hours of joy, but be prepared for some frustration too! The user generated content will only serve to add to the already rather large and time comsuming main game. Definitely recommended!