Trail Boss BMX Review – a Fun, If Not Simple, BMX Title
When I think of BMX-style games, my mind admittedly goes way back to the days of Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX and Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. BMX titles always held a special place for me, because as an untalented youth a bike seemed way more accessible than a skateboard.
While I haven’t really picked up the sticks on a BMX title since then, Trail Boss BMX for the Nintendo Switch was easy to understand and it didn’t take long for me to find myself doing tailwhip backflips on every jump I could.
With 40 hand-crafted levels, there’s plenty of base content to keep you coming back for more. The keyword here is base, but we’ll get to that in the coming paragraphs. The bold, somewhat chunky colors and graphics fit right at home on the Switch and the control scheme is one that is intuitive and easy-to-pick-up, if not a bit restrictive.
Coming in at $20 USD, there’s a lot to like about Trail Boss, but it’s important to go into the game knowing you’re there for the pure trail BMX experience the game offers and not for additional fluff or anything of the like. If you are looking for a bigger experience, you may be better looking elsewhere – towards something like Trials Rising.
There is no biker customization (though there are some limited bike options through paint colors), no stats that you can increase, and no type of free-roaming areas – you have trails and then you have more trails.
If you are going to release a game with such a limited scope, you better deliver on gameplay aspects, and, thankfully, developer Yeah Us! has locked in the feel of the game. You have eight tricks to choose from that are accomplished with a simple directional push of the left joystick and you can spin or flip with the right thumbstick.
Everything feels tight for the most part, but occasionally it did seem like your tricks were a bit sticky and would extend for longer than you actually were pushing or pulling one of the sticks.
Then you have the B button, which is used to help straighten out your bike for landings. This also comes in handy for transitions, as most tracks offer multiple paths that you can take.
Trail Boss originally released as a mobile game, and you can really feel some of its smartphone roots
While you control your basic movement and tricks in the air, that’s about it. You don’t get to adjust your speed and you don’t have any control over the height of your jump. It’s a bit disappointing, as there are times it really would have felt good to go for some extra height on a jump, but you are basically stuck with the game’s plan for you.
Each trail offers a couple of objectives for you to complete, ranging from hitting point milestones and certain tricks to hitting transition distance goals. Crash and it’s back to the beginning. The challenges are varied enough, but personally, I found myself getting exhausted with the “hit X trick” after a couple of hours of play. It feels good when you are able to string all objectives together into one clean run, but accomplishing that is a feat in and of itself. Which means you’ll be replaying tracks multiple times. Luckily, tracks are short, but it did sometimes feel as if this mechanic was being used to artificially extend the length of the game.
Overall, Trail Boss BMX was a fun little title for the Nintendo Switch. At $20, it is a bit difficult to whole-heartedly recommend it, as content is a bit on the light side. There are plenty of stages, yes, but it really feels like there should be a bit more surrounding the tracks and fun gameplay. That said, if you are looking for a fun game to kill some time, that can easily be picked up and put down at your leisure, this might fit right at home in your digital library.
Trail Boss BMX Review provided by NintendoLink
Review also available on OpenCritic
Publisher: Yeah Us
Release Date: November 6, 2020
Price: $19.99, £14.99, €14.99
Game Size: 931 MB
Easy to pick up
Satisfying gameplay
Nailing the perfect lines and transitions feels good
Lack of variety
Sometimes "sticky" controls
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