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“This is why they invented helmets”

Written by Kieron Gillen on March 26, 2008 at 12:47 pm.

THIS IS WHY THEY INVENTED HELMETS, indeed.
We like this sort of thing. Redlynx wrote to us to provide review code of their recent bike-stunt-thing, Trials 2: Second Edition. We haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but we wanted to bring it to your attention quickly as it looks somewhat neat and are a little annoyed we missed it (As Jim just put it “There are so many videogames!”. If only there was some kind of PC games blog that keeps track of all the best PC stuff for us to parasitise off. Man!). We’re always sucker for a Kick-Start-esque obstacle-course trial-thing game. And slogans like the one we use as the title popping up during their trailer before a montage of spine-disintegrating collisions is a sure way into our heart. Or, at least our website.

You can download the – ahem – trial version, which is about eighteen and a half Imperial Peggles in size. If it takes your fancy, you can unlock it with a code you pay money for. Go team capitalism!

Here’s a trailer off youtube. It’s not the one with the THIS IS WHY THEY INVENTED HELMETS slogan, mores the pity, but still urges you to fly without wings. Which is bad advice. Trust me. You will only hurt yourself.

All the other official videos on their site can be seen here. There’s also player-uploaded videos for you to see here, which is always nice.

I end this post disappointed I never worked out a way to make the Trial-bike-riding/Trial-version gag work. Fail.

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Tags: demo, Redlynx, Trials 2: Second Edition

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Chris Evans says:

This looks intriguing.

/downloads

March 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Five says:

Is it me or does this look really pretty?

Oh and im sure i saw a mention of helmets in the trailer…

March 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Cigol says:

Holy shit that youtube video looks sweet – did you see the way the flames from the barrel dissipated :D

March 26th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Antti Ilvessuo says:

We have RedLynxTrials channel with all the videos there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7usXt1F0A

(including the THIS IS WHY THEY INVENTED HELMETS)

March 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Chris Evans says:

That was fun :D

March 26th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Joe says:

I’ve always been a big fan of the THPS series of games, but they seem to have got a bit stale as of late on the PC. This looks like it will fill the gap for addictive and fun, extreme sports on the pc, can’t wait to download and buy when I get home :D

March 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

fluffy bunny says:

OMG, this looks really cool. Like Across (love), only with modern graphics. I’m definitely downloading this, but the website seems to be having problems now…

March 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Smee says:

Wasn’t this a little flashgame from a few years ago?

Edit: Yes it was, made by the same company. This looks like a 3D remake, although it still appears to have the same gameplay, being a 2D bike platformer and all.

http://www.miniclip.com/games/trial-bike-pro/en/

March 26th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Razerious says:

Looks like a fun game, downloading the demo now :)

Any of you ever played a somewhat similar indie game called Across? It’s pretty old now and was 2D, but it was a lot of fun. You could also create your own levels, if I recall correctly.

March 26th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Jim Rossignol says:

This is awesome.

March 26th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

Chris Evans says:

This is awesome.

/echoes

Having so much fun with this, just putting my driver through the most painful crashes possible :D

March 26th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Cigol says:

It’s very fun and polished. For the first ten or so minutes I couldn’t stop laughing at all the various ways I knocked my rider ‘unconscious’ (though I doubt very much he’ll be waking up from my crashes :D). The graphics are really nice, especially the fluid, realistic animation & physics.

My only problem has been getting used to the controls, it’s a bit difficult to get the rider to do exactly what you want but I guess it’s just a matter of practice. I’ve ‘completed’ all the demo levels except ‘dynamic’ so far, but not had a perfect run yet :D

I had a problem exciting the game too, it must open up a new executable that has Comodo upset because I had to fling my computer in and out of sleep mode to kill the processes to get out of the game. Have to turn Comodo off temporarily when playing I guess.

Be even cooler if we could have levels with the x-axis to control as well but I digress… definitely worth a look.

March 26th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

heikkikova says:

Yes, this is the best what you can do with fast hands and bright brains
kovaheikki

March 26th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

QcChopper says:

I can never get bored of this game! It is a hidden gem and I wish it gets the renown it deserves.

March 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

Razerious says:

Whoa.

Take a look at some of the replays (you can play replays when you’re at the highscore board). Some of the ones I looked at was crazy. The top players’ control of the bike is pretty mindblowing

The replays even shows when they press the different keys, so it’s possible to learn something from them.

Fun little game, this :)

March 26th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

SwiftRanger says:

Wow, superb fun this.

March 26th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Eric says:

Any of you ever played a somewhat similar indie game called Across? It’s pretty old now and was 2D, but it was a lot of fun. You could also create your own levels, if I recall correctly.

I loved that game! The full name was Action SuperCross, and it was later renamed something like Elasto Mania.

Oh sweet, you can still get it: http://www.elastomania.com/

March 26th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Razerious says:

I loved that game! The full name was Action SuperCross, and it was later renamed something like Elasto Mania.

Ahh, yes, that’s the name I was looking for. Could only remember Across :) Will have to download the demo and try that one as well. Has probably been something like 7 years since I last played it

March 26th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

Kieron Gillen says:

It’s a really old-skool game idea – try the Kick Start link in the story. Good to see modern updates though.

March 26th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

AbyssUK says:

Looks like a mobile game I once tested… my eyes never recovered

http://www.iplay.com/game.do?gameid=301

The engine was actually based on a molecular physics simulation engine which always made me laugh.

March 26th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

fluffy bunny says:

Kieron: If you want to go even further back, you can check Stunt Bike: http://www.lemon64.com/?game_id=2517 . Same basic concept.

Having said that, this game is almost exactly like Across/Elastomania, only with modern graphics, a couple of cool new features and slightly less insane tracks. And that is of course a good thing. :-)

March 26th, 2008 at 11:33 pm

Kieron Gillen says:

Yeah, it’s a REALLY old concept. Annoyingly, I can’t actually remember who did it first.

March 26th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

Del Boy says: