Trials HD

A physics-based dirt-bike racing game — sans multiplayer — that isn’t about racing others, but about beating the clock and overcoming some insane obstacles? And it includes a track editor so you can create your own crazy courses? That definitely sounds familiar, and whether its creators were inspired by ExciteBike or not, Trials HD has a lot in common with the classic 1985 NES dirtbike racer. And like its legendary predecessor, Trials gets our golden seal of approval.

Its devilishly good looks aside, $15 might seem like a steep price at first. Progressing through five tiers of six to 12 challenges each, you traverse each track with two goals: finish as fast as you can and with the fewest number of wipeouts. And make no mistake, you will wipe out. Fortunately, each track is liberally peppered with checkpoints that allow you to continue from the spot where you wrecked. (Though getting gold medals will require faultless runs.)

Staying upright means shifting weight on your bike appropriately by knowing when and how much to lean forward on steep uphill ramps, when to let off the gas a bit, and sometimes even pulling up the bike in midair to get a little extra distance on a jump. Though the game does a good job of teaching you these moves, some of the obstacles Trials puts in front of you are frustratingly brutal; in fact, we’d wager its title might be derived from “trial and error.” You’re offered no hints or tips for difficult sections, even after you’ve attempted them 100-plus times. These roadblocks are Trials’ biggest barrier to fun.

Thankfully, there’s plenty more here to justify the price tag. In addition to a series of unlockable tournaments, Trials packs a bike and avatar editor, a compelling compilation of minigames (see sidebar), and that track editor. It’s an incredibly robust feature — perhaps even similar to the actual development tools — but it’s also highly intimidating. At least you can simply enjoy the fruits of others’ labor by downloading your friends’ shared tracks.

Given Nintendo’s allergies to technology such as advanced physics engines, we wonder if they’d ever take ExciteBike in this intriguing direction. But since that would hardly happen on Xbox 360 anyway, be glad that Trials HD came along. We sure are.