Written by: Ian

 

 

 

With Trials HD being the most successful Arcade game to date, is this Red Bull branded competitor, "Red Bull X-Fighters" up to the challenge? With some official courses and overalls in the mix, and a slightly greater degree of realism, hopefully this should be a genuine rival.

 

 

Like with many a racing game, there is a real half-hearted attempt to try and make you feel like you’re on some kind of world tour. However, you just get a series of different events at the tracks across the world to compete in- hardly Dickens. There’s not even a congratulatory message once you complete the game.

 

 

X Fighters actually has some tricks up its sleeve when it comes to differentiating itself from Trials, with a rather greater focus on tricks than the game description would have you believe. The trick system could be better though- each of the 20 tricks requires a relatively complicated set of buttons presses at once, and memorising all 20 will take some doing, even with the tutorials you get.

 

 

Also, even when you are focused on just getting through the courses, the objectives are different from Trials HD- there is no penalty for falling off, and it is a straight run against the clock. Like with Trials though, this is a game about high scores, and getting various colours of medal for your actions.

 

 

It’s a much easier game though, and you can get through every single challenge quite easily in a couple of hours, although completionists will need rather longer to get the full 200 points. It’s easier both from a physics point of view, which are far more forgiving, both in terms of landings and how you jump, and also from a course perspective, with more linear progression, and less puzzling to be done, as well as more frequent checkpoints.