Trials Fusion (2014)

Bells and whistles now as standard!

All in all, I find myself very happy with what Trials Fusion has to offer, and I think this is a fantastic first entry for the new generation of console hardware. It's a great-looking game with active background and foreground elements, fantastic track designs, an interesting future aesthetic, and some strangely appealing narrative pieces provided by the quirky AI announcer. While the general Trials mechanics are largely unchanged, outside of the misstep represented by the tricks system, I've never seen much need for improvement in the series' basic controls and physics. RedLynx certainly hasn't lost any of the ideas that make the Trials series so much fun to play and has escalated the track design in a way that makes this game feel fresh and new, despite being the 13th entry in a decade-old series.

Trials Fusion can be addictive and wonderfully intoxicating at times. At other times, it will make you burn with a frustrated rage others might find frightening. The good news is that you spend a lot more time smiling than frowning, as you'll love the zany courses and enticing backdrops, as well as the various challenges available for each track.

In my days of dying in Track Central, I gave thumbs up to tracks with robot wars and neon overlays, later finding tracks with alien invasions and drops from million-story high skyscrapers. Just last night, in another track, one of my riders smacked his face on the concrete, only to bounce back into the clouds. Track Central gives into core of the Trials experience and allows us to relish in the waste of biomass. Sorry, riders: this is what you're made for.

Trials veterans will feel right at home with this latest instalment in the franchise, but they won't be able to shake off that nagging feeling that something is missing, despite the new tricks on offer. Newcomers, prepare to fail again and again as you find yourself addicted to a deceptively simply formula.