Urban Trial Playground review for Nintendo Switch

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Publisher: Tate Multimedia
Developer: Tate Multimedia
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-2
Online: No
ESRB: E

I?ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Urban Trial games. Yes, they?re blatant Trials rip-offs, but, at least on PS3 and Vita, I found the games to be incredibly addictive. As such, I was pretty excited to check out the series when it arrived on the Switch.

After playing Urban Trial Playground, however, I?m thinking there must be some serious nostalgia at work, because this is pretty much the definition of average.

I mean, it?s not awful or anything. Like the previous Urban Trial games, Urban Trial Playground is a perfectly competent stunt bike racing game. The controls are solid, you can perform some solid tricks, and the visuals, while repetitive, pop off the screen here.

The problem is that word, ?repetitive.” It often feels like Urban Trial Playground only features a handful of tracks and a handful of possible requirements, and that the game?s developers run through all the possible combinations of those things very quickly. There?s not a lot of variety here, which means that while the game is moderately fun in small doses, it never feels very deep.

Of course, that?s only an issue if you?re looking for something deep. If you just want something to jump in and out of without any commitment required, Urban Trial Playground will more or less do the trick. If you want anything more than that, you?ll probably have to wait until Trials Rising in February, but until then, this will act as an okay stopgap.

Tate Multimedia provided us with an Urban Trial Playground Switch code for review purposes.

Grade: B-