Begin. Ride. Crash. Repeat.
Begin. Ride. Crash. Repeat.
It has been a familiar loop for all Trials fans for over a decade.
Begin. Ride. Crash. Repeat.
A poorly timed rotation. A slight lean too far forward. Not having enough speed coming out of a jump – all spell disaster. All continue that too familiar rhetoric.
Begin. Ride. Crash. Repeat.
Make no mistake: You will fail at Trials Fusion, repeatedly. Scores of times on a single track, you will find yourself unable to perform the digit-based dexterity to conquer the electronic obstacle course laid in front of you. As a franchise, the Trials series has always been about punishing, exacting difficulty. For fifteen years, this once Java-based series coupled it’s testing complexity with the exhilaration of completion and improvement, rewarding the player for their skilful completion with euphoria. This feeling is missing from Trials Fusion, which has made little changes to its direct predecessor, Trials Evolution. With meagre changes to the existing formula and an overwhelming sense of repetition, it seems as though Trials Fusion has fallen off the track.
At their hearts, Trials games are simple: players take control of a motorbike riding avatar, moving through a 2D, side-scrolling obstacle course. There are scant few controls, with players being able to accelerate, brake and lean backwards and forwards on the bike. Coupling these together allows the player to manipulate the direction and movement of the motorbike to suit their needs, helping to clear jumps and debris easily. Checkpoints are scattered across the course, allowing for slow, steady improvement. Though simple, the control scheme proves to be devilishly difficult as the levels progress, introducing gaps, 360 ramps and all manner of detritus designed to impede, inhibit and envelop the player in failure. Crashing forces the player to reset to either the last checkpoint, or restart the race again. Finishing the track under a certain time limit and with lower than a certain number of crashes rewards the player with medals, used to unlock new levels.
Though the majority of the levels are straight up obstacle courses, a number of mini-games and alternate gameplay modes have returned. These alternate courses vary in their devilish descriptions, tasking players with driving bizarre vehicles, crashing in grotesque fashions or flying as far as possible, amongst others. These help relieve the potential monotony of consistently playing the same type of track, over and over.
Devilishly difficult titles live and die by their ability to get the player back into the swing of the action quickly. Super Meat Boy excelled at this, restarting the player immediately following their consistent, repetitive deaths. Trials Fusion also triumphs, placing players back into the action mere seconds after their disappointing crashes, ensuring the player never remains too frustrated for long. Part of the feeling out process for each level involves repeatedly crashing and restarting, learning the track piece by piece. If it weren’t for these fast restart times, the annoyance and tedium would overwhelm quickly and the enjoyment would be rapidly drowned out.
New to the series is a trick mode, where moving the right stick manipulates the rider into performing a number of different poses. Each movement of the stick is met with an analogous movement of the avatar, as though you are manually shifting it around the bike. There is no snapping to specific positions or tricks; rather, the movement is completely manual. Slowly swinging the avatar into position is both challenging and unique, adding an interesting new wrinkle to the series. Unfortunately, it is rarely used effectively. While it is possible to utilise in ordinary levels, there is little benefit to doing so, serving as little more than a distraction. In specific trick levels, players receive medals for completing certain tricks, or for gaining a certain level of score from their form, but there are far too few of these to truly dig in deep and get to know the system. As it stands, the trick system tends to be more of an annoyance than a worthwhile addition.
Replayability and improvement are core tenets of the franchise. Consistent implementation of ghosts and challenges help ensure that players will repeat the same levels again and again, aiming to increase their times and beat their friends. Each level is also accompanied with three challenges, with varying degrees of extreme difficulty and cryptic description. Varying from simple control based challenges (not braking in a level, for instance) to incredibly specific interactions with the background, the challenges are difficult and quite the achievement when completed.
Asides from the tricks and the challenges, however, there’s little new added to the franchise. Trials Fusion feels like a lightly skinned update of Trials Evolution, updated to run on new consoles. Whilst the core ideas are still sound and the gameplay is as challenging as ever, with nothing new to talk about it’s a difficult game to recommend, or even review. The leap from Trials HD to Evolution was magnificent, with the addition of multiplayer and a swathe of new features. It felt as though the price and update was justified. Fusion feels like a new paint job, a simple fix and easy cash grab. The incentive to keep playing just isn’t there anymore: franchise players have already seen and experienced all the highs and lows of what the game has to offer. If you desperately need more Trials in your life, you are unlikely to have a poor time with Fusion. For casual players who have had their fill, however, there is nothing worthwhile in Fusion to recommend your return. It feels as though RedLynx got caught up in their own mantra:
Begin. Ride. Crash. Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Rating: 5/10