Game Review: Trials Evolution

 One of XBLA's most popular series is back...

The Xbox Live Arcade network has been getting some pretty good titles these days. It's nice to see developers being able to come up with some really fantastic games that we don't need to wait yonks for, (though not in all cases- Fez, 5 years?!) and for a reasonable price that doesn't burn a hole in your wallet like the price of your standard retail disc. Of course, as with any games platform, there are still plenty of flops in the Xbox Live Arcade library, but I think the recent gems that have shone through the grime of half-assed productions and sea of paper thin Indie games is a sweet treasure to behold. If I were a pirate, as in a sea pirate, I'd tell you that X(BLA) marks the spot for some incredibly entertaining, original and modestly priced games!

One such game that sparkles brightly in the newest additions to the XBLA platform is Trials Evolution. If you ever played its predecessor, Trials HD, I can tell you Trials Evolution quite simply has everything great about that game and more. Much, much more! The premise, for those unfamiliar, is simple: You ride a motorcycle in a series of different maps and have to make your way from start to finish as quickly as possible in one piece. The physics engine is the most crucial element to this, as you find yourself carefully balancing and tweaking your rider's position in order to traverse the many objects that will be in your path. Starting off with something as simple as a set of barrels and escalating up to near-vertical ramps and jumps between platforms that Mario would have a difficult job handling. It's a hard game. Oh yes. In similar vein to Super Meat Boy, it'll take some real skill to get through some of the more difficult levels and will most likely have you cursing wildly and pulling your hair out, but it's so awesomely addictive that it'll have you coming back for more every time. And when you do win, it feels great.

The single player mode starts you off with a tutorial telling you the basics and shoves you off from there, giving plenty of unique and exciting maps for you to better your technique in, before bumping up the difficulty and giving you a few new tips on overcoming the more challenging levels. At these milestones in your career, you'll also unlock new bikes that will let you go faster and be more agile than before, allowing for fast and frantic action speeding through the levels and also the careful precision required to beat the wonderfully crafted areas. You can also use these new bikes to play with online against other riders and beat your times in previous levels. There a 4 medals for each level. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, though the fourth is only an option when you complete most of the career. The better the medals you get, the quicker you can unlock new levels and experience grinding new joys and difficulties. The leaderboards are really a great part of the element that are brought up practically everywhere in the game, rather than just some option to look at off in the menus. Every level has the score board show your friend's best times, adding the element of competition that makes this game work so well.

Multiplayer is also rather good. Online, you can play supercross, trials or hardcore trials events with friends or strangers. Supercross is a racing mode that has up to four players on the screen at once in a frenetic battle to the chequered flag at the end. Trials is basically the single player mode, but still racing against other people, though it's just their ghosts. And hardcore trials is the same as the latter, though with the most difficult levels of the game playable. And they certainly are difficult. You can rank up in multiplayer also, but after you unlock Hardcore Trials, it's mostly just a number to represent your skill/time put into playing online.


Remember the golden days of building your own dream park in Tony Hawk's games? Well, Trials Evolution has its very own Track Editor. Though, when I say track editor, what I really mean is an absolutely mind blowing construction kit that lets you use the same tools as the developers to make your own levels. I haven't seen anything quite so advanced that's directly integrated in the game and allows for such incredible maps to be made except maybe the Elder Scrolls Development kits. It allows for anyone to try their hand at making some really great stuff, which has already been showcased online.

Track Central allows you to download other people's tracks made in the editor and try to get your own high score on it. Some of the maps we've seen on it already are pretty spectacular and we're still only a short time away from the game's release. It's even possible to make games that don't even have you doing trials at all. The developers themselves have shown how versatile the kit is by showing levels that mimic games such as Angry Birds or Marble Blast. There's even some first person scenarios where you have to find objects, or shoot targets.  The community has already caught onto making some really good trials and skill games along these lines and the results have been nothing short of fantastic so far. The editor adds a huge amount of longevity to the game, with new maps coming out every day. It's certainly a strong excuse in buying the game alone.


Trials Evolution is a fantastic game that, if you have the patience to play is absolutely worth playing. For the great addictive gameplay, the fun multiplayer and leaderboards competition and the stunning map editor and the hundreds of creations it has spawned. It's time to get some high scores.


- Andy Robison

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Game Review: Rayman Origins

Rayman Origins Review

• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
• Platforms: 3DS, PS3, PC, PS Vita, Wii & Xbox 360
• Genres: Platformer
• Players: 1-4
• Release Date: November 2012 (PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii)
• Price:  £14.99+/$19.99+

You know, at times it’s a curious thing being a classic gamer. I get a little excited any time a game is announced that opts to nix the third dimension - it is, after all, a pretty uncommon event these days. I’ll admit to you that it doesn't generally matter what the game is, either; if it takes place on a 2D plane, it’s got my full attention. So while I fancy myself some kind of gaming purist (retro-whore is probably more accurate), in truth it’s a very rare game indeed that manages to blow me away completely. Rayman Origins is that game.

Now, Rayman Origins is a whole lot of things, but one thing it’s not is anything new. If you’ve played a 16-bit platformer, you’re going to feel right at home. You run, you jump (and shoot), and that’s it. You do this for 60-odd levels. Sounds like an exercise in repetition, but the genius of the design ensures your experience is anything but. The game plays like a mix of the best elements from Genesis classics Sonic the Hedgehog and Dynamite Headdy, a little bit of Super Mario Bros., and “the other SMB”, Super Meat Boy. I don’t intend to make it sound derivative, but rather emphasize the kind of pedigree we’re dealing with here.

Rayman can walk, run, punch in the four cardinal directions, shrink (altering attack properties), catch ledges, bounce, float, swing, run along walls or ceilings, swim, and even pilot a giant mosquito. By the latter half of the game, you’ll be utilizing all of his abilities to make it to 
the end of each stage. If that all sounds overwhelming, rest assured it couldn’t be simpler – the entire game is played with two face buttons (for jump and punch), with the right shoulder buttons dedicated to running, which keeps your thumb from working too hard. With a smooth difficulty curve, you’ll be mastering all of Rayman’s abilities in no time. And it’s a good thing too, because this game is no pushover.

Rayman Origins is a tough little platformer, but unlike the aforementioned Super Meat Boy, its goal is not to be a grueling test of skill and reaction time, but rather a game of options. This is where the sheer brilliance of the level design really becomes apparent, as the layout of each and every stage can be tackled in a variety of ways. While it’s relatively easy to just blow through the game, if you want to master all of its challenges, be prepared to muster all of your platforming skill.

You have a number of basic goals beyond reaching the finish line: There are Lums to collect (the game’s version of coins or rings – if you’re looking to master the game, you’ll want to finish each stage with 350 Lums or more), secret cages to find and times speed runs to beat if you expect to see everything Rayman Origins offers. The time challenges (and special chase stages) in particular are sheer genius and truly showcase the meticulous attention to detail Rayman’s level designers brought to the table. These stages are all about momentum, route planning and precision jumps and attacks, and represent some of the finest platforming sequences I’ve ever experienced. Bring your A-game if you want to complete this one 100% - and trust me when I say your efforts aren’t in vain, as you’ll need to earn enough badges to access the ten treasure chase levels, which in turn will earn you the ten “Skull Teeth”. Collecting all the teeth unlocks the game’s true final level (and boss). The treasure chase and final stage (“Land of the Livid Dead”) are the highlights of Rayman Origins, so while they’re optional, please consider them mandatory. You won’t regret it.

As if the rock-solid platforming weren’t enough, Rayman Origins masquerades as a shooter from time to time. One of the most pleasant surprises in the early game for me was when I first hopped onto my little mosquito buddy to jet over to the next island. Scrolling shooters (Shmups) are my favourite kind of game so it was a real treat to see another homage to a marginalized (nigh extinct) genre that was once the king of the arcades. While the shooting stages don’t hold up to the best examples in the genre, they break up the action nicely and show, once again, just how brilliant the stage designers are; none of the shooting stages are particularly difficult, but memorization, aim and precision movements are going to be required if you expect to collect enough Lums to nab all the medals. The team responsible for the shooting sections clearly understand the appeal of these games and it shows when you aim for the best possible score by the level’s end.

Boss fights, while sparse (five platforming bosses, two shooting bosses), are all unique, challenging and utterly hilarious. I don’t want to ruin anything here so I’m going to keep things vague but if you've ever dreamt of fighting the horrors of acid reflux in a very literal sense, Rayman Origins has you covered.

As if this just wasn’t enough for Ubisoft and brainchild Michel Ancel, the entire game is playable with up to three other friends (offline only) at the same time. While it won’t be the preferred way to achieve your best times and scores, you’d be crazy to avoid the slap-tastic mayhem playing with friends offers. There are benefits to cooperating, as friends can help you obtain some of the difficult to reach jumbo coins found in each stage, but it’s so much fun slapping your friends around that you’ll be hard pressed to get anyone to settle down and coordinate. Of note, while this mechanic may appear to work much like the cooperative perks in games like Little Big Planet, co-op is not required to obtain all the goodies in the game. With about two-dozen characters to unlock (the vast majority simple re-skins of Rayman/Globox/Teensies), it’s generally very easy to keep track of who is whom on screen. Seriously, if playing with friends doesn’t put a huge goofy grin on your face, you may want to ensure you still have a heart.

What should be obvious to anyone who’s seen screenshots or footage of the game, Rayman Origins is absolutely gorgeous. The completely hand-drawn artwork, simultaneously stunning and bizarre, is executed with as much care as the level designs and represents some of the most consistent art direction I’ve ever seen in a video game. This is a game that proves graphics can indeed make a game better. There are layers upon layers of parallax scrolling, plane changes, an incredible colour palette and crisp, detailed definition between objects and obstacles, all running at a consistent 60 frames per second, with no frame drops or slowdown, even with four players on screen. The UbiArt Framework (the game’s engine) is a technical marvel and deserving of accolades in its own right. While currently proprietary, industry reports indicate Michel Ancel is pushing to make the technology open-source. If he succeeds, all of us will benefit. Seriously folks, unless the Wii is your only means of playing this game, I beg you to purchase this one on PS3 or Xbox 360. Playing the game in standard definition would be a borderline tragedy.

What no screenshot will show you is just another dimension of the game that deserves mention -if not an entirely separate article: The soundtrack. As bizarre and beautiful as the visuals, Rayman Origins’ audio experience is absolutely sublime. Peppered with adorable, helium-infused vocals, the score is a masterful blend of Country, Big Band, Jazz, Hawaiian and Rock, if they all met up at their local auditorium backed with a full symphony. It’s whimsical-but-epic, glorious-but-understated. It brings me to my only noteworthy gripe: There is no sound test option. A score this exceptional stands on its own and it’s a shame it isn’t possible to enjoy the individual tracks without having to fire up the game and hop into a given level. Of course, when the gameplay is this much fun, it’s hard to sell that as anything but a superficial niggle.

Rayman Origins is a bonafide masterpiece. A package so loaded with content and so immaculately presented that I can’t help but gush over its sheer magnificence. Gameplay and controls have been honed to a razor’s edge. The stages present incredible variety, both in terms of level design and scenery, as well as methods for gamers to tackle the challenges. Multiplayer, collectibles and unlockables offer fantastic replay value, and the visual and audio designers have managed to elevate an expertly crafted game into a sublime orgy of platforming bliss.

Buy it, play it, love it. Rayman Origins is not only one of the best games released in 2011, but is perhaps the finest example of the Platformer genre ever created. I’m not willing to label anything as perfect, but this is as close as it gets.

- Ryan McLaren

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