Welcome to our review of Urban Trial Playground on Nintendo Switch! Out now on the eShop and a physical release has been announced as well!
Backflip from the rooftops, over palm trees and sand dunes in ‘Urban Trial Playground’ and become the ultimate stunt racer!
This new installment of the stunt bike racing series is moving the action from city streets, straight to the sunny and colorful beaches of California, mixing in even crazier tricks, flips, and combos than ever before. It’s a game of speed, balance, and style!
Independent front and rear brake controls allow players to pull off stoppies and front flips as well as sliding into huge skid burns on the track!
With a vibrant, sun-soaked background and chilled out atmosphere setting the scene for some truly breathtaking stunts, get ready to flip trick and roll over palm trees and golden sands dunes. Urban Trial Playground levels are designed as a surface able to be used to perform tricks and stunts, combining your best moves into multi-score combos.
Urban Trial playground has a small tutorial teaching you the basics and then lets you embark on the quest to become the master of the track. While the tutorial does do a fine job to explain the mechanics of your bike, it might need a little tweak here or there, maybe a more extensive training of your initial skills is what is needed.
As you start the actual game, it becomes clear that you can take on the game with 2 very different approaches. Go for the high score or just cruise along. I kept going for the high score in the beginning and ended up with several crashes and without even any stars. It became frustrating as I did feel my skills were improving yet I saw no such rewards. The game only lets you continue when you hit a certain mark in order to obtain at least 2 stars.
So at one point, I just cruised along, trying to figure out where I went wrong. Not going for the style but for a perfect run without crashing and suddenly, it gave me 3 stars and I advanced to the next course.
The game suddenly grew on me, I had found the way to advance. I knew what to do next.
Before I knew it, I was 8 levels down the road, slowly adding stunts back into my driving skills and I was actually enjoying the game for the first time. it may be me, it may be the lack of guidance, but I really felt there could have been more guidance in this game. Stuff like the bikes and the personalizations, they all make sense. But knowing how to properly play, isn’t that what the tutorial is for? At least a little more than just how to drive.
In conclusion, Urban Trial Playground is actually a great game to have, despite being limited in just which stunts you can perform. I love doing the stunts though and I often laugh at how awkwardly the drivers fall down, totally unnatural but that adds to the appeal of the game. Aside from the bad beginning that I personally had, nothing beats not being able to pass the first level… I had a surprisingly fun time, I managed to cheat my way into obtaining one of the collectibles and all.
My rating is 70%
