Way back in my high school days everyone played a little flash based game where you balanced your dirtbike as you performed stunts. The game was a free flash game that was great for wasting study hall time. Granted that was time I should have been using to complete homework. Oh well.
Once I found out that this game was upgraded and brought over to the 3DS, I raised an eyebrow. This style of game is great for a free time waster online, but I had my doubts about how it would be developed on to the 3DS. But given my history, I had to give Urban Trial Freestyle a try.
The game is very simple in it’s design. You go from area to area doing stunts, or racing the clock in time trial. As levels are completed, you get money to upgrade your bike or buy new cloths for your character. All in all it’s very straight forward.
All of the levels take place in a city setting, hence the urban part of the name. From construction sites to old warehouses, each level is beautifully drawn out and scores high in realism. With the way the levels are set up, they look as if you are in a three dimensional world, despite being able to move only two directions.
I found the game itself entertaining. Every level had that one awesome moment where you were left in awe. On one level you hit a ramp and land on a moving train. Moments like that made the game interesting. Combined with the music and sound effects, it all made for a fun gaming experience.
Then I hit my first major flaw in this game. I beat and mastered the entire thing in an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, I am many things, but amazing gamer hasn’t quite cracked the top ten yet. I understand that there is a track builder and co-op component, which I’ll talk about, but I can’t rationalize an hour of solo play. Even at a tiny eight dollar price tag, unless you have a group of friends who bought it, you would be better off buying a book.
Now on 3DS you have two special features. One obviously is the 3D capability from the system itself is cool. I must say that the 3D in this game is actually top five of all 3DS games I’ve played. The graphics really exploded when the 3D lever was at max, causing the background to come to life. That’s a nice touch.
The other special thing for the 3DS is a track builder. This feature allows you to build your own courses for you and your friends. Of course, unless you have a lot of friends with this game, it mostly just grants you another two hours of messing around.
While this game was a fun experience, the lack of playtime killed it for me. I advise only buying this game if you have a good number of friends who want to play this together, sharing tracks and trying to master each other’s stunts, or if you are really into freestyle. What you get with the game is really good, but there just isn’t very much of it to go around.