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Urban Trial Freestyle Review for Nintendo 3DS

Urban Trial Freestyle Review for Nintendo 3DS

This is Far Too Familiar…

In the art world, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. There’s still a line that can’t be crossed. For example, in the realm of video games, when does it stop being inspiration and start to be flat out copying someone else’s success? This is a pressing matter when dealing with Urban Trial Freestyle , now available on the Vita, PSN, and Nintendo 3DS. $6.99 allows you to enjoy a game where you’ll control a biker as he travels across a challenging course filled with ramps, jumps, and ragdoll physics. (The game costs $14.99 for the PS3 and $9.99 for the Vita.)

Urban Trial Freestyle Screenshot

Sound familiar? It should; the Trials series was undoubtedly the inspiration for Urban Trial Freestyle . (Hey, they even use the name “Trial,” too) The only problem is that the Trials franchise is infinitely better.

If you haven’t had the chance to play Trials Evolution , the latest game in the franchise, there’s a demo available on Steam. Go ahead and download it; I’ll wait.

Urban Trial Freestyle Screenshot

Back? Okay, good. You now have two options: pay $6.99 for Urban Trial Freestyle , a game that has less content than the demo you just enjoyed, or pick up the full version of Trials Evolution for $19.99. Oh, and there’s only one right answer here, so choose carefully.

Urban Trial Freestyle Screenshot

In order to talk about the shortcomings of Urban Trial Freestyle , we need to discuss the gameplay itself. You’ll control a biker as he attempts to navigate his way through an over-the-top stunt course. The only thing in your way between the start and finish lines are ramps, jumps, pipes, other miscellaneous obstacles, and ragdoll physics. It’s the last part that’s the real hindrance, as you’ll often fly off a ramp at top speed and quickly flip backwards in mid-air. You are able to control these physics by tilting the analog stick to the right or left. Mastery of this control is key to completing the courses.

There’s a total of five worlds, each with four courses, plus an unlockable sixth world. Each world has two modes: One that focuses on getting to the finish line as fast as possible, and one that focuses on tricks. While each track does a nice job of feeling different in the two modes, the game’s scoring system completely strips the fun out of everything. Did you crash once while trying to beat the clock? No five star rating for you then, regardless of your blazing-fast time. Because, you know, it makes total sense to beat the “world record” by a good 90 seconds and still be penalized because you weren’t aware of an obstacle that required you to break.

Urban Trial Freestyle Screenshot

Performing tricks to complete a course is a unique addition and, in the game’s defense, offers a completely different way to race through familiar tracks. The only problem is that it’s not necessarily fun. Completing through the game’s Stun mode feels like a grind, performing trick after trick, restarting the map over and over until you get your desired score. Wait, why do you have to restart the map if there are checkpoints? That’s because once you pass through a trick, you can’t do it again. Once again, makes total sense.

But the real “winner” here is the game’s scoring mode. Remember when I mentioned about doing all of that crashing when you’ve beating the clock? That’s completely irrelevant when doing tricks. You can crash as much as you want and still get a four or five start rating.

Hold on a second. I thought crashing when you’re attempting tricks is bad? I thought the point of a time trial is to get the best time, period? Urban Trial Freestyle , what the heck are you doing?! You had one job! All you had to do was take the Trials franchise and put it on handhelds! But you failed! The game’s challenge is non-existent, the longevity is severely lacking, the scoring system is a mess, and going through each track to get high ratings is a chore.

Hopefully, you now know the correct answer to my earlier question.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
It looks like a high-end DS game. 4.0 Control
Well, it controls well enough. That’s a plus. 2.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Subdued generic music is generic. 2.0 Play Value
Do you like work in your games? Then go play an MMO. 2.3 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Nonstop action complemented by a host of features including multiple game modes and leaderboards.
  • Influenced with the support of Julien Dupont, the “godfather of urban trial freestyle.”
  • Slick, urban, detailed graphics and an innovative physics engine fine-tuned for fun pick-up and play.

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