 |
| Triple Pack - Trianls HD, LIMBO, Splosion Man Format: Xbox 360 Out: now Price: About £10-20 |
Trials HD
Trials HD was the main reason I decided to buy this game in the first place because I had seen what the new Trials Evolution was like. If you haven't already guessed (because you're dumb like that), Trials HD was the predecessor to Trials Evolution, so obviously it's not as good and if you already have Trials Evolution, then there's really no point wasting your time with this one.
For those of you who don't know, Trials HD is a HD (duh) version of those simple stunt rider games you can easily find on pretty much any flash games website, you play an excessively floppy guy with a death wish that rides a motorbike, driving up and over or down and under various planks, pipes and other conveniently placed obstacles, as you try to get to the end without falling off your bike or in my case, whacking your head on something every 5 seconds.
The concept is simple and lovable, though I wouldn't be open to encouraging this behavior in real life, it makes for a fun game but is often extremely frustrating, particularly when you're going for a gold medal on the harder stages. Trials is a game that just comes down to skill... Most of the time. It can be very challenging but because of this it offers a great deal of satisfaction when you finish a track, and then suddenly all those broken necks you got over the handlebars don't seem like such a waste of time... Or the country's medical funds.
 |
| Don't try this at home! ... Seriously, you'd need tons of room to build the course and you'd probably burn your house down |
It's only natural really that a game such as this has a level creation tool, which would be great if it weren't so shit. In my short experience with the level editor, I found it fiddly and difficult to use, the rotation was difficult to get to grips with and it also didn't seem to offer all the things that made up the package included levels. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't seem to find anything like the exploding barrels or rings of fire that you could mingle with in the main game.
 |
| Rings of fire you won't be finding in the level creator... I think |
All in all Trials is great fun, providing you can stand the irritation of failing numerous times on your 'gold runs' without throwing the controller out of the window or beating your cat with it. The creation mode is a huge disappointment, and Trials Evolution is much better in terms of... Well... everything, track gimmicks, creation mode, literally everything, so if you have a choice and the means grab Evolution, otherwise if you're like me and have no LIVE (That's not a word play), then this is well worth a look.
LIMBO
LIMBO is a puzzle-platformer which really brings to life the phrase 'to learn from one's mistakes'... Every 5 seconds! It runs on a very simple and linear concept: Walk right, die, respawn, walk right, avoid trap, continue right die, respawn, walk right, avoid trap, walk right, lather, rinse, repeat.
 |
| LIMBO likes to occasionally make your deaths slow and evidently painful, this spider's got you now, but you'll have to wait to find out how it she kills you... |
LIMBO has no instructions, no dialogue or writing, no background music and... no colour really, it's all black and white, though the concept is basic it's really quite hardcore in the sense that it does nothing to help you progress aside from what you can figure out yourself. But if there's one other thing I must say while I'm at it, LIMBO is not a game for the faint of heart, it's really very creepy and gruesome, there's something horribly shocking about seeing the little silhouetted boy's head fly off after you jump into a carefully hidden bear trap, and you can't help but feel sick seeing little black blood splashes fly from your obliterated carcass.
 |
| LIMBO teaches you to 'be afraid... be very afraid' of many everyday and completely harmless objects, take these smings for example, you just know they hide a trap somewhere... |
There's really not much to say about LIMBO now I think about it, the gameplay is simple yet challenging for both your mind and platforming ability, getting past any and every little trap that's just aching to violently murder you is both a challenge and a reward, and every trap is so different that despite the repetitive mechanics and linear gameplay, it's still very fun and getting to the very end gives a strong sense of achievement.
Which leads to my only criticism, it's far too short, just like this paragraph.
So I'll say it clearly in black and white, LIMBO is a fun and quirky little game and an experience you probably won't get from any other game out there, so go and get it. RIGHT NOW. Unless you don't like spiders, in which case steer clear of this one, it'll give you nightmares.
Splosion Man
Admittedly I didn't expect much from this title at first, but after playing it for a while I've really come to enjoy it. Much brighter than the other two games, Splosion Man sees you playing as... A man... Who explodes... There's not really any better way to explain it, scientists have created some kind of weird plasma man (that's you) and you have to get to the end of each of the 47 or so levels using many carefully timed explosions in order to.... Well, escape, I assume, because again there's no dialogue in the plot so the reasons why Splosion man is running around laboritories, eating cake (which is not a Portal reference) and blowing up expensive equipment and scientists is left up to the gamer, I like to believe he's too hot and wants to get to the air conditioned room at the end so he can eat his cake.
 |
| Splosion Man - He doesn't look like plasma, but he does look like a guy who's had all his skin and balls shaved off |
Much like LIMBO the concept and controls are simple, you press stick to move and A to explode (jump), that's it. The levels are simple enough so you know where you're going, however actually getting there is a good challenge, often you will have to time your explosion's so precisely that a simple mistiming sends you back to the last checkpoint, which can be especially annoying in levels where they're less frequent.
The things Splosion Man says throughout the levels reminds me of the character 'bug'... From the game 'Bug!', it gives the game a really silly feel, but I suppose when you think about it, having a fiery plasma guy running around eating cake is rather silly in itself.
 |
| This is the average, 'splosive, Splosion Man game screen, it's complete chaos, you can't understand what's going on, yet somehow the two people in the corner can still have a good laugh about it... And no, I don't know how a guy with a ginger beard could have become a scientist either |
Splosion Man is pretty difficult to criticize, it works well as a platformer and test of skill but there's really nothing special about it compared to other platformers, aside from the fact that you can sort of do a triple jump and that it takes a little bit more mind-power to figure out where the cakes are hidden.
So looking at it through a mushroom cloud, Splosion man is okay, but it's nothing different from your everyday platformer, it might be fun to find all the cakes and has a moderate (but only really for really young players) sense of humor, but you'd probably be better hinging your bets on something else. You might get a bit more enjoyment if you're obsessed with high scores and speed runs, but if that's the case you'd have much more fun grabbing something much faster like Sonic the Hedgehog.
The Verdict
So overall, what you have here is a decent trio of games... Or actually, to put it in a realistic viewpoint, two fit girls and their ugly gal-pal they're trying to set you up with, it's worth going over there to talk to them because the two girls are that fit, and the ugly one's a good sport, but if you value your time (In perspective: Time = Money - Negi) or already have a girlfriend (In perspective: girlfriend = Xbox LIVE - Negi) then give them a miss because there are other better girls (games) out there for you... Okay so that's not the best description in the world and it makes me sound quite sexist, which I'm not, but the point is this bundle has two games which are very nice and desirable, and one that's... okay for a bit of fun, if you know what I mean without getting hung up over my analogy. If you've got Xbox LIVE, give Splosion man a miss because there are far better platformers out there, but get Trials Evolution and LIMBO because there's no other way to describe them other than 'basically brilliant'
Triple Pack - Final Score:
78%
(Spicy Chicken bites accepts no responsibility for offence caused by unintentionally sexist remarks made during this review. Spicy Chicken Bites also accepts no responsibility for repeated use of small print. Spicy Chicken Bites does not count as one of your '5 A Day')