What would Excitebike be like if it featured explosive barrels and ragdoll physics? That’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw the indie Xbox Live Arcade title Trials HD on the show floor. Originally a downloadable PC title under a different name, Trials puts you in control of a positively bone-headed stunt devil in a variety of downright insane situations. Most of these comprise some combination of ramps, rails, and seemingly-impossible jumps—and your only goal is to try and make it to the goal as quickly as possible and in one piece. The controls are pretty much precisely the same as Excitebike, in fact—right down to the tilting of the bike in mid-air to try and matching your landing angle.
But that’s where the divergence begins. The tracks start off pretty simple, but quickly escalate into some purely wacky designs—loops, explosions, switches that activate preset events… it’s chaos, but in the sweetest sense of the word. Unlike Excitebike, at this point, the game adopts a selection of strategy and platforming elements which make “solving” the tracks as quickly as possible an infectious task. You’ve got to manage your speed to ensure you can make the jumps or branch to the higher, quicker path, but at the same time, you have to remain in control of your character and keep him on his bike until the finish.
Checkpoints are strewn generously throughout each track, so failure isn’t much of a hindrance at all. In fact, thanks to the aforementioned ragdoll physics, it’s actually quite fun to lose and watch your poor, hapless rider getting flung deservedly across the screen into a brick wall. And since the tracks are bite-sized, retrying a challenge is never too much of a bother, either. That’s a good thing, too, because Trials HD is remarkably addictive; before long, you won’t just be playing, but vying for a spot on the leaderboards. Fortunately, whether you’re winning or losing, the game manages to make it all fun.
There are additional modes as well, such as one featuring unique modifications to the formula. The developer showed us a race where he was towing a cart of missiles behind him; to succeed, you have to go quickly enough to secure a respectable time, but simultaneously you have to be certain you don’t jar the cart too much—else some rather unpleasant explosive circumstances may apply. Another one of these put the biker inside one of those giant steel circus balls. If you watch our HD video footage of the title (upcoming, very soon), you’ll notice that we were laughing our asses off the entire time this was going on. That’s because it looks ridiculous, but it’s a great idea and a worthwhile addition to the rest of the package.
Speaking of worthwhile additions, there’s even a track editor. The developer on hand explained to us that this was the same editor the company uses to make the stock tracks. Awesome! We witnessed the quick construction of a simple track with triggered events (you cross a certain spot and something explodes, the track changes, etc.)… it was fast and easy.
Let me say with confidence that, after having laid hands on the game at E3 for around a half and hour, I can’t wait to review this one. It’s easily one of the best downloadable games I saw at the show and it looks to bear the properties of digital crack. Stay tuned to DigitalChumps for more on this unique title, plus tons of HD video coming very soon.
