QCF: Trials of the Blood Dragon

ou know what made David Sandberg’s Kung Fury so endearing and enjoyable? It genuinely convinced you to feel good about romanticizing the nostalgia of the 80’s and the pop culture of that generation, making so easy for the audience to buy into the love letter that it was creating.

With a runtime of just 31 minutes, the direction of its presentation and callbacks within its theatrics exuded a sense of authenticity; it just knew when to slap you in the face with something neon and low-res, and when to subtly drop a synthesized interlude to the scene from the soundtrack…

Kung Fury is the finest example of how to glamorize the culture and style of that era, and the closest video game equivalent to that success would be FarCry 3: Blood Dragon—the design and tone of that game managed to hit upon those same principles, and successfully conveyed 80’s sentimentality as well as a result.

So I’m sad to say that I’m a little surprised, and gravely disappointed that Trials of The Blood Dragon didn’t follow suit, and almost delivers a reverse effect. It constantly vomits out nostalgic imagery and noise from the era it panders to without any specific rhyme or reason other than to be as obnoxious with its aesthetic as it possibly can.

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PAX East 2014: Getting tricky with Trials Fusion

here aren’t many names in video games with the potential of yielding polarizing views of admiration or revilement quite like Trials has within the last fourteen years of growing exposure. Since the series made its acclaimed return back in 2009 on the 360, Ubisoft has picked up the publishing and it’s only motivated RedLynx to continually push the franchise more and more while remaining true to the formula’s roots.

Investing a considerable amount of time with the current build on the floor, Trials Fusion applies that same kind of ideal to reinvent on top of what worked like its predecessor Evolution did and managed to multiply it to a degree that every sequel would aspire to accomplish for its respective franchise.

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