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" Also available on: N/A Developer: RedLynx Publisher: RedLynx Genre: Physics-platformer Release date: August 12, 2009 Price: 1200 Microsoft Points (\u00A310.20) Despite appearances, Trials HD is not a racing game. Far from it. It&amp;#039;s not even a stunt racer. Sure it has a motorbike, massive jumps and the occasional bout of breakneck speeds, but it&amp;#039;s most at home when you&amp;#039;re perilously hopping between tiny platforms, straddling impossibly placed wooden ledges, or trying to scale faraway places with a perfectly-timed flip. Trials HD isn&amp;#039;t about speed, but finesse and extreme perseverance, and comes as one of the most rewarding and polished physics-platformers you&amp;#039;ll play for some time. You&amp;#039;ve probably encountered Trials HD in some shape or form before, especially anyone who has snuck in a quick flash game during work. The rules are simple: ride the motorcycle to the end of the linear, two-dimensional course with as few faults as possible, tackling countless perils both inert and obvious in a nature. Steep ramps, seemingly endless pitfalls, loop-the-loops and see-saws lie between you and the end, as well as unhealthy quantities of explosive barrels and bombs. If you fail, simply tap B to dust yourself off and try again. And you will do so, an awful lot, because the overcoming each of the obstacles are as rewarding as they are difficult. In many ways, Trials HD is flawless. Its stages constantly innovate with each passing checkpoint, and the simple controls and nigh-on perfect physics that govern them are absolute. Its early stages may involve hell-for-leather jumps, but the importance of body weight, timing and perfect acceleration soon come readily apparent, where the slightest touch could mean the difference between a perfect landing and breaking every bone in your rag-doll body. It&amp;#039;s incredibly tactile stuff, and each cunningly designed stage throws a unique challenge to test you. It&amp;#039;s compulsive because it&amp;#039;s so simple and solidly constructed. With just the triggers to move and left stick for body weight, you know how each challenge can be overcome, but it&amp;#039;s simply a case of actually doing it. The burden is on you, not having the controls or the level design for you to blame. Extremely generous checkpointing that saves after every individual trial supplements its addictive trial and error nature, one that won&amp;#039;t loosen its grip until the stage is over. Reaching over and tapping B every five seconds becomes a ritual, especially when the loading is non-existent. However, there comes a point where it becomes too much. While you&amp;#039;ll easily blast through the easiest set of difficulties in around an hour, the difficulty adjusts at a flick of a switch, breaking its organic flow of taxing but enjoyable gameplay. Trial and error quickly becomes brute force, where you&amp;#039;ll easily spend half an hour and hundreds of restarts on a single stage, with no guarantee of actually finishing it. While challenge is appreciated, the disproportionate range of fun and enjoyable tasks to those with punishing dead-end obstacles is rather offputting. And once you do eventually overcome them, aside from the mostly fruitless medals and friend leaderboards, there&amp;#039;s little reason to go back. Why suffer through that again? There is also a selection of enjoyable mini-games to unlock; riding inside a caged ball, pulling an explosive-filled trailer over a bumpy ground and flying through rings of fire are some of the highlights, all well composed if somewhat quick-fire diversions unless you have a robust list of friends to compete against. It&amp;#039;s this mode, as well as the tournaments (which string together single events into a gauntlet) that make great use of the integrated leaderboard system. This adds real-time checkpoints on screen, piling on the pressure to go that extra few metres to better your peers. It pushes replayability and competition, but its value depends on the strength and persistence of who you&amp;#039;re up against. It also comes with a thorough and easy-to-use level suite, which stands shoulder-to-shoulder with LittleBigPlanet in terms of the possibilites and range of meticulous tweaking on offer. You can easily make a fully-playable track of chained planks and ramps in five minutes, or spend hours creating a complicated and intricate series of chain reactions, all with customisable medal times and scenery. The comparison stops short with its sharing capabilities however, where only friends can share and download creations (a barrier that lies with Microsoft, not the developer). It seriously stunts the purpose and availability of any course you make, and again, its value will depend on friends that will value the supply and demand your creative efforts. What you get for 1200 Microsoft Points (\u00A310.20) is a rewarding and technically stunning downloadable title that offers polished platforming mechanics like no other. However, it&amp;#039;s a stunted product, where its value depends on both your persistence to overcome its harsh trials and a decent social network to give it lasting legs. While it&amp;#039;s light on content, it&amp;#039;s ripe for replayability and certainly offers one hell of a ride.  &amp;gt; What do you think of the game? Share your views "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/review/a172003/trials-hd-xbox-360/>