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.
First and foremost, one of the most important themes of the danger-prone stunt racer has been its constant drive to push the surreal factor to eleven, and Fusion delivers in spades. The biggest introduction to the formula are the inclusion of actual freestyle stunt tricks from the real-life motocross sport it liberally emulates—resulting in an entirely new challenge of wrestling with the physics of a game in where they were mostly unforgiving to begin with, and enhancing the experience for it. Adding an entirely different layer of play; it isn’t enough to simply survive the gauntlets of inclines and ramp points the cleanest and fastest way that you can—Fusion pushes players to do it with style.
Don’t get me wrong, these new tricks are challenging to accomplish in their most basic form let alone with the combination of chains and the flips that bolster the score they can earn, but like previous titles, the pacing involved with gradual institution is alleviated thanks to the designs of the beginning tracks and stage composition that makes the transition feel easier than it really is.
More to the point, the tracks themselves have escalated to a whole new level of ridiculous that will delight newcomers and veterans alike.
The starting tutorials stages also introduced other elements that we’re really explored in previous Trials titles, like gaps anti-gravity that oblige ludicrous freedoms towards stunt chains given the right thrust of momentum; though there wasn’t a whole lot more new beyond that, but the camera framing towards specific aerial transitions laced within the work of boom shots in conjunction with the gorgeous environments and backdrops ascends Fusion into being one of the most visually stunning games to justify the leap onto the next generation.
The other first for the series is a mobile companion game available on either iOS or android that cross-pollinates progress and records on tracks for both games. The concept is interesting in the fact that a heavily competitive-driven community will allow the most committed players to take their bragging rights on the go as they can protect their hard earned scores conveniently on the go the moment it they’re leaderboard position gets trumped. The execution of the sync remains to be seen, but if this kind of asynchronous challenging delivers what it proposes than Trials Fusion will be sure to dominate the various screens of gamers for some time when it hits next week; we’ll be sure to have a Play Play with more when it cross-drops on Sony’s and Microsoft’s systems on the 15th.