I certainly didn't see this one coming. I've played Urban Trial Freestyle in September of 2013 right after game was released. "One of the best purchases ever" would be too loud for that one, but i never regret about and completed it with all achievements.

Technically, this game could be considered as a more tricks oriented reskin of Urban Trial Freestyle with some new additions, but not in a bad way. It's also an upgrade in almost every aspect (well, of course, as there's 6 years between these games).

+Decent graphics, game looks nice
+Smooth controls
+Price
+A lot of replayability via challenges/collectibles

=Level design is solid, but becomes repetitive at some point
=Music is not bad, but it's not good either

-Loading times between levels AND when you reload level seems to be way too long. ~5 seconds to reload level and 5-8 to load a new one is too long for a game like this in my opinion.

All in all, Urban Trial Playground is an amazing game for a price. It's not as shiny on PC as it is on Switch, but it could brighten a few evenings for every gamer who would play this indie gem.


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Sometimes I write Recommended reviews that sound negative, but this is a Not Recommended review that will sound positive. Urban Trial Playground has things going against it, but it is a game that makes me laugh, whenever I am not in the "mood" (cough) for a strategic game. The rag-doll physics of seeing a skater-dude with pajama pants smashing his face onto pavement is just endlessly funny, at "those times"... I am sure there are better "car climber games" on flash websites, but this uses a 3D engine that shows the wonderful crash impact details. And, oh boy, there are going to be a lot of crashes.

I played this game on ubuntu linux with radeon mesa graphic drivers and an xbox-type gamepad controller. This game has graphical stuttering issues and controller issues and yeah some gameplay issues. The controls are not great, and tricks like flips are seemingly impossible. I also saw some menu text that came off the textbox. But does any of that matter when you can cause a hipster to faceplant into a third-floor balcony railing? Well yes, of course it does. This game takes up a shockingly large 19,300 MBs of diskspace, and uses the Unreal engine. There have been complaints about the game in the forum, which have gone unanswered. I would not recommend this game to anyone, expect those who want to get a really good laugh after a night out.

I expected a decent alternative to Trial series - received half-baked, buggy wanna-be of Trials with absolutely no physics whatsoever. The motorbike feels absolutely stiff! I'd only recommend you to pick this game up if heavy discounted.

3/10

I had tons of fun with Urban Trail Freestyle and thought this might be similar. And in theory it is fun.
But it has one single flaw which ruins absolutely all the fun you might deliver -
"RESTART TRACK" RELOADS THE TRACK WITH LOAD TIME OF ABOUT 10 - 20 SECONDS.
This one thing makes the whole thing unbearable.
Urban Trail Freestyle is still so much more fun.

Questionable physics, unresponsive controls, a lack of developer care about cheaters atop the leaderboards (we're talking 1 second time trial completion times and outrageous scores), unlikable characters, ugly bikes, a stupid and unwarranted "time bubble" thing on the "time trials" tracks, which really aren't time trials, they're more "take the slower, less fun way through to hit the proper bubbles".

With just a few tweaks, this game COULD have been a fairly decent (at best) Trials knockoff. As it is, it's just...a game that you should only consider if it's 75% off or in a bundle. Even at that, if you have ANY sort of backlog, give this a hard pass.

Good old Excite Bike fun. Take a simple bike and race through many different levels to complete challenges, collect chips, and obtain cash to upgrade to a different bike and access different parts to make your bike go faster, be more nimble, and have a better braking system.

This is the next game in the Urban Trial series after Underground. This game is very similar, just as fun, and more arcade than simulation. The physics are not perfect, but the majority of the time work just fine and can easily get used to since it behaves relatively close to what you would expect the physics of a bike making flips would feel like.

The graphics are decent, nothing to brag about, but as a whole each level looked good, had enough detail to look unique and to offer good scenery, but obviously the central focus here is the bike and the tricks you are making. The sounds were decent, but eventually I lowered all of the sounds so I can listen to music from my computer while I played the game because hearing a non-stop revving engine can get annoying at times.

The challenges were challenging and some of the chips were hard to find, but as a whole I found a lot of fun when playing this game. I will never in life know what it feels like to flip a motorcycle or pop a wheelie through an entire obstacle course, and this game allows me to do this safely and enjoy the thrill without breaking myself. Perfect escapism.

I did find a couple times that some graphics popped in and out, but not often enough to find a fix and at times the physics just didn't work as anticipated such as taking a jump off of a smooth ramp and suddenly popping straight up like I hit a 2x4 on the ground. This did seem to happen more on the challenge levels versus the normal tracks.

Overall, if you can find it cheap and you like Excite Bike type of games where you must tackle a variety of obstacle courses and challenges within the courses, then please pick this up as I enjoyed it immensely. By the way, good luck getting 1 million points in one combo.

Both the Urban Trials and Urban Trial Playground are super fun, Playground is a bit harder, bigger and more features.

Yes, both the Urban Trials and Urban Trial Playground are super fun, Playground is a bit harder, bigger and more features.

What i love about them both is they are designed for PC in contrast to Ubisoft's ported and
expensive counterparts, and of course there is native steam achievements.

The first game had a lot of life put in to it's world which is what drew me in to the possibility of a follow up. This game however doesn't capture that same feeling.

That being said, this is far from being a bad game despite it's abundance of small issues.

I think the core gameplay is a step back from Urban Trial Freestyle, but I appreciate the new score and challenge systems. Where the first game felt like Trials with a somewhat half-baked score system, Playground is more like OlliOlli - with much more elaborate combos and challenges. It's entertaining, but I'm not sure what's going on with the physics. Because you're intended to lean back before catching air, it suddenly becomes impossible to wheelie hard enough to flip your bike backwards during the leadup to every jump - and the disconnect with regular bike handling is jarring. I appreciate wanting to make the game accessible, but you've broken the perception of consistency and effectively knee capped the skill ceiling.

The lack of a quick restart button - which was present in Freestyle - is infuriating, and feels like a concession to the game's very long loading times. It's a really basic quality of life feature for this kind of score attack game. In fairness to the developer, the visual fidelity of Playground is a huge step up - but for this type of game, I think allowing you to hop in and out quickly is more important. I'm probably going to end up dropping it onto an SSD, which is not something I saw coming. So why a thumbs up? Well bluntly, the game goes on sale for $1 and it certainly provides enough entertainment to justify that low entry barrier. Flawed Trials with elements of Tony Hawk is pretty fun, even if it doesn't rise to the level of either of those influences.