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More From Matt!

A few months ago we featured our first guest blogger Mr. Matt. The first two posts “Achievement Favorites” and “Matt Returns“ were such a hit that we asked him back for another edition! Matt’s unique way with words is both delightful and and insightful! The title highlighted this time is the highly acclaimed Trials Evolution! Click Read More to see which achievements made his top 3!

 

As far as names go, Trials Evolution pretty much says it all. RedLynx’s flagship franchise was first born to the web in the year 2000 with an idea and a dream. When Trials HD jumped and traversed its way over to Xbox Live Arcade in 2009, it was a huge success. Rebuilt from the ground up in full 3D, Trials HD was a labor of love for the developers that shines with a level of polish and attention to detail that was a cut above the rest. Fans and critics could not get enough of the meticulous and often brutal level design that kept them racing for that gold medal finish.

So when it came time to talk about a sequel, RedLynx knew they had to keep raising the bar. They delivered: Trials Evolution is everything I could want in a sequel. More tracks, more challenges, more crazy skill games, more customization options, and more explosions. Lots more explosions. Trials Evolution moves out of the warehouses and caves, and in to a whole crazy world full of steep inclines and perilous descents. Everything that Trials HD brought to the table, Trials Evolution does it bigger and better.

Here are my three favorite Achievements in Trials Evolution:

 

Beyond the Wall of Pain – 10G
Smash your bike and break every bone in one spectacular crash.

What would Trials be without the crash? If a foam pit was at the bottom of every perilous drop, every sharp object wrapped in plastic, and every wall was soft and padded. It just wouldn’t be Trials. Flailing wildly through a spectacular cartwheel of motorcycle parts and fire is as much a part of the game as balance or patience. The crash is the reward, not the penalty, for failure.

What greater reward is there then, if not the biggest crash imaginable? You have to go above and beyond, pushing the limits of your ride until it breaks, creating an ultra speed collision with a massive explosion. Send your rider flying in to the stratosphere, higher than he’s ever flown before. Leave a scar on the earth to memorialize the victory of your meltdown. Let it stand as a testament to the glory of your failure.

Total and absolute destruction is its own reward. But the 10 Gamerscore is nice, too.

 

Community Spirit – 20G
Post a time on another player’s custom created track.

One of the biggest features in Trials Evolution is the newly revamped track editor. A supremely powerful suite of tools that allows anyone to build whatever they can imagine. How powerful is the editor, you ask? It is the very same editor that RedLynx used to make every track and skill challenge in the game. Everything, at your finger tips. It’s pretty awesome.

And already there are some amazingly crafted community tracks that defy the imagination. Like the devilishly beautiful track “Infernus” by InF1ctor, taking you on a wild ride through brimstone and fire. Or if that’s too hot for you to handle, try a psychedelic technicolor dream ride down “Rainbow Road” and “Rainbow Road 2″ by LatChoX. There are custom skill games like “bad luck man” by gedousan where you compete to rack up the most damage on your rider by sending him through a cascading meat grinder of spiked balls, glass panes, and fire. Even Supercross tracks get transported from the mud and dirt to exotic floating jungles like “Islands of Skydonia” by Lukeyy19 or the delightfully toxic industrial wasteland “Pollution World” by DarkAndw.

You can’t crash your bike anywhere without slamming helmet first in to one of these incredible community creations. Complete a run on any one of them for 20 beautiful Gamerscore.

 

Full Throttle II – 20G
Finish ‘Archipelago’ without faulting or ever releasing the throttle

In the original Trials HD, Full Throttle (15G) wanted you to finish the level “Container Rush” without ever releasing the throttle or crashing. This achievement actually holds a special place in my heart, because it was among the first achievements I actively wanted to attain after reading about it.

You see, Trials is a game of patience and calculation, carefully measuring the gas and brake while positioning your rider so that he does not crash and burn, all while trying to make it to the finish line under the set goal time. A literal balancing act of skill and precision versus the clock. Full Throttle runs counter to this premise, racing flat out and not stopping or falling until you hit the finish. It seemed like an insane challenge, almost not possible. And it was. You could say that Full Throttle really began my love affair with achievements after seeing how fun, rewarding, and challenging they could be.

Well Full Throttle is back, and just like Trials Evolution it’s bigger and badder. This time around the task is to see you finish “Archipelago” by throwing caution (and your rider, and your bike) to the wind, going flat out to the finish without crashing. It is every bit as challenging and death defying as it was the first go round, except Archipelago takes place on a string of beautiful stone islands in the sky. The reward of failure being a meteoric crash into the world below.

I was delighted to see the Full Throttle achievement return, but it wasn’t alone as Unyielding and Demon on Wheels both came back for another lap as well. Each one is older, wiser, and more challenging for the second go around. Yet Full Throttle will always remain very dear to me. You never forget your first romance.

All in all my trials with Trials were a feast of excitement balanced by the delirium of my own personal annihilation; my ego emblazoned on my sleeve, driving my pursuit of perfection into silver and gold lined clouds of glory. Only to see me fall into pits of purgatory at moments notice. Trials has evolved. My ability to try and find a balance has not.

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