Urban Trial Freestyle (3DS eShop) Review

I’m sure we have all seen videos online of people injuring themselves in all manners of ways on bikes trying to achieve success doing some crazy stunt of sorts. It’s both hilarious and well… just damn funny, but you would not want to try to do the same thing yourself no matter how amazing the end result would be and the fact that you would never EVER regret doing it! But because we are a bunch of scared wimps here at Vooks and don’t have an arsenal of lawyers to defend us when you smash your face through a chandelier store; we can’t endorse you do such things unless you do it on your 3DS – This is where Urban Trails Freestyle comes in.

Trails & Stunt games have been around for decades in some form or another, one could consider Excite bike on NES as one of the forerunners to this genre. Thankfully due to progress in game design and technology the overall capabilities of this genre have expanded into something very unique. There are plenty of titles of this style that span the entire spectrum of quality from the great (Trails on 360) to the stuff you wish you could forget like Bardot from Popstars in the mid 90’s. So now it is 3DS’s turn to have a crack at this game style. The gameplay is the usual for this game style; you control your dirt bike on a 2D plane which has a variety of jumps and twists to make you getting to the goal all the much more difficult than one would expect on the usual Sunday bike trip with the family through an abandoned warehouse or post-apocalyptic airfield. Controls are simple and responsive giving you excellent control over what happens along your brief journey. Acceleration and brakes are done with the A and B buttons while tiling your rider is done via the circle pad. When you jump you can control the spin/balance of your rider allowing you to have a finer control on how you move and where you land.

The eventual goal is to get to the end of the course in the fastest time possible with the least amount of failures – along the way you will be graded on speed through various check points and how well you perform a jump or landing. If this is sounding fairly generic then you are correct in that sense since we have seen this gameplay a lot and most famously recently with Trails HD on Xbox 360. The magic of this title doesn’t lay in the core concept but how well it is executed. I said there was a spectrum of quality in these games and the great news is that this is definitely one of the better available on all platforms, it is not the best there ever was but it is close.

You race your way across 40 courses fighting to the top spot on the online leader boards while just trying to survive to the finish line, every single one of these is a challenge and has fantastic replay value. This is a title that is a great example of how to take simple mechanics and keep them fresh throughout an entire title, very few developers can achieve this but what is on hand is a pure tour de force of excellent game design.  If you get tired of the inbuilt levels then you can take advantage of the 3DS exclusive feature and have a crack at building your own levels.

This is the usual gamut of unlockable gear to keep you interested with new shiny shines and while they don’t really add too much to the overall package they are a nice addition to keep it fresh. If single player eventually tires for you then why not try and take on others in the multiplayer mode. While it is the usual setup of competitive modes it does a great job of keep you going back for just one more round every time just to prove you are better than everyone else (Truth be told I suck). It’s a combination of great design and a simple competitive mode that give it so much character.

This is a game that is easy enough for novices to finish but fiendishly difficult for those out to perfect this title, that’s what is called brilliant execution in my book.

Since each round will only take approximately 3 to 5 minute to finish this is great if you need a quick burst of gaming action in your day; not that you will want it to be a short stay. The true testament for this title however is the fact that you will find yourself constantly coming back to do better on your previous efforts. Those two factors are the true mark of a great game and this will satisfy practically anyone.

Visually this title is easily in the top 10 titles for technical prowess on 3DS and while the visuals are geared towards the more dark and gritty aesthetic; it is very pleasing the entire way through. This is a colourful yet dark environment, the way it should be done.

Frame rate is a solid 30 fps regardless of running in 2D or 3D mode, and it is especially impressive when you see what is on show. Textures are colourful and crisp, characters and environments are very detailed and the lighting is astoundingly good for the platform. While there are some issues with the shadowing creating some odd pixelated artefacts the overall look more than makes up for this minor quibble. If this was on the Wii U eShop it would be considered a great looking game, it’s just down right impressive on 3DS and the fact that I have to nit-pick to find problems is a fantastic reality to have. The environments are varied from each level and are always a pleasure on the eye while simultaneously being complex.

Audio for the most part is another win for the title. Yes the music is the usual generic instrumental rock but it is non-intrusive and does the job of keeping in touch with the rest of the games environment. Sound effects are high grade and are more than just place holders, all the sound effect are of excellent quality and do the part of making the whole world feel consistent.

Considering this come out at the same time as Aqua Moto Racer 3D, it’s funny to see such opposites in terms of execution. I can’t praise this title more; if you are into games of this style then you absolutely can’t go wrong with this title. I would not say it’s the absolutely best example of the genre but it is in the top 5 and should be considered by almost anyone who loves more action oriented games.