Hey guys, I’m back to provide you with my thoughts and reactions of March’s Games with Gold: Trials of the Blood Dragon Review. This game is a mash up of a Trials game and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. I haven’t played either game, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to get. I knew Trials was a racing plat former that utilised physics. I am pretty sure I played similar style games on my PC years ago. Just by looking at the details of the game on my Xbox I thought I wouldn’t like this game. Watching the screen captures and clips not to mention its more than 14Gb, I figured I would download this game, play it as fast as I could for this review, and delete it off my hard drive. But boy was I wrong.
Right from the beginning I was intrigued by Trials of the Blood Dragon. I fell in love with the 1980s-style colorful fonts, graphics, and music. The collectable stickers you unlock by beating a level with an “A” score or higher and the Spirit Animal buddy system also incorporate this artistic style.
Not only did it look and sound like a pure nostalgia trip, but it was funny as well. As I played through the story mode I found myself laughing and snickering as the ridiculous plot unfolded. Not knowing the Blood Dragon storyline, I wasn’t familiar the characters and their back stories. However, it was pretty easy to follow along with zero knowledge of the game it is based on.
The gameplay was what you would expect from the physics-based Trials series, riding your motorcycle, bicycle, or other mode of transportation through a side-scrolling 2.5D world full of ramps, obstacles, and other hazards. Checkpoints are scattered throughout each level to save your progress as you navigate your way through all sorts of danger. The objective is to make it to the end of the level as fast as possible and with the least number of deaths to score the highest amount of points. Much to my surprise, I began to enjoy Trials of the Blood Dragon’s trial-and-error style game. It brought back memories of playing Crash Bandicoot over and over trying to pull off the perfect run.
The levels get progressively harder and more gadgets are added to help you through the puzzles. The different gadgets could sometimes be confusing to use, leading to many deaths. All of that failing made it that much more satisfying when I finally beat a particularly tough part. This game also had action plat former sections every so often, where you get off your bike and run, jump, and shoot your way through to the end. It wasn’t perfectly executed, but these parts of the game were fun in their own way and provided a nice break from the cycling action.
Even though Trials of the Blood Dragon is short and sweet, with the story mode clocking in under 10 hours of play, the replay value brought me back for more after beating the main story. I went back and played earlier levels again, looking to set new high scores and unlock more collectables and achievements.
For a game I thought I would fly through and brush off, I am having myself a good time going back and trying to best my own top score. I do believe having no experience with either game of this mash-up allowed me to enjoy it a little more than someone who was a fan of either series. I went in with no expectations and managed to have fun.
Verdict: 8/10
Written By Anthony Giudice
