Trial Challenge by AIM Productions, Price: $19.99
Reviewed June 2003

If you are a trial bike fan, stop reading and click on the Buy button. You won’t find another trial bike game that looks this good and plays this smoothly on a PDA. But if you have not checked out the “54321” show on ESPN, you likely aren’t into riding a real trial bike and wearing scars and injuries as glorious medals. Trial Challenge, developed by AIM, will provide you with an injury proof way to taste the joy of trial bike riding.

Different from games like Motocross Stunt Racer, Trial Challenge doesn’t demand the biggest air and trickiest landing. What you absolutely need to get deep into the championship race is perfect balance and the agility to overcome the obstacles in 15 well designed courses. Bike geeks will love this game because not only does it have a variety of ways to adjust your bike's specs, but the AI reflects the handling of the bike so well that you can feel the instant results of your adjustments. 15 drastically different looking courses provide very interesting visuals and the correct feedback to your bike depending on the terrain types. The responsive surface feedback combined with very realistic bike physics means kick-ass gameplay, though you might find some courses to be too big of a challenge. There are two playing modes, and you must unlock the Free Play mode courses by beating them in the Championship mode.

The visual effects in this game will stand out from other Pocket PC games with its original design and high quality. The title video shows some cool clips of real life trial bike runs, which serve as inspiration. It certainly got my blood pumping! You will find 15 very well designed courses with highly detailed realistic environments that will not only look good but also interact well with your trial runs. AIM did a good job of blending the background with the playable environment, and you will discover some background pieces are actually the obstacles in the trial. The different locales and types of terrain give you a fresh look in every new course so that you don’t feel like you’re playing the same old trial over and over again. If this isn’t polished enough for you, check out the replay feature where you can enjoy the skillful moves you made during the trial.

To go with the highly detailed graphics, Trial Challenge presents players with a humorous and equally high quality sound package. The title music and transition tracks are exciting while the in-game sound effects are realistic. The voice-over pieces are funny and the RPM FX is exhilarating. Trial Challenge supports ARM and Xscale Pocket PC devices and requires a whopping 10MB of memory.

If big air and fastest speed is your game, go play Motocross Stunt Racer. But if you are a world-class bike mechanic and love to make your bike jump steps, then you won’t find a better game than Trial Challenge. The bike's handling and the course interaction alone are worth the time you'll spend beating the trials. The beautiful graphics and effective sound package are icing on the cake. The only nitpick I had was while the controls are very responsive, you'll sometimes feel like you need a pair of joysticks to control your movements in the game.

Playing Hints and Tips

Don’t be afraid to spend some time tweaking your bike and trying it on a course. The AI is so in tune that it makes the bike design very important to completing the courses. Don’t give up if you get stuck on a course. You will get it eventually.