Urban Trial Playground

Genre: 2D Stunt Racing

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: Included in Kao The Kangaroo + Urban Trial Playground, along with Kao the Kangaroo. It is also in Fast & Furry Bundle, along with Kao the Kangaroo and Urban Trial Tricky.)

Like the games in the Trials series, Urban Trial Playground is a 2D Stunt Racing game, where you ride a motorcycle through an obstacle course and must shift your weight as you ride to stay balanced and respond to various challenges thrown at you. Compare the gameplay here to classic games like Excitebike and Motocross Maniacs and you have a bit of an idea.

However, while the gameplay is in 2D, the areas you’re racing through are rendered in full 3D, and while it doesn’t look especially impressive, it does give some nice variety within each level, although from one level to another you’ll find the same backgrounds reused repeatedly – in some places it seems like you’re just crossing over a different 2D slice of the same 3D area.

However, while this game doesn’t have the features or the visuals of the competing Trials Rising, it does do a few things that are distinct, namely in giving players the ability to essentially duck and jump in addition to shifting the bike’s weight. Unfortunately, these control additions don’t feel as nice to use as I’d like, and just moving the bike around in this game isn’t quite as fun as it is in Trials Rising.

Of course, that’s not to say this game isn’t fun, and as a lighter version of the same sort of game as Trials Rising, and one without microtransactions, it fares reasonably well. But it’s still really wanting for the wealth of features and options Trials Rising has.

tl;dr – Urban Trial Playground is a 2D Stunt Racing game where you race a motorcycle on an obstacle course. It doesn’t have the microtransactions of Trials Rising, but it’s missing that game’s wealth of features too. It’s still a fun game, but it feels a bit empty by comparison.

Grade: B-

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