We go on an urban trial this week but will we end up pulling some killer freestyle moves or fall flat on our face?

Urban Trial Freestyle 2 is a 2D physics based platformer where you must pull off the best moves possible without massively injuring your character and falling off your motorbike. Similar to 360 classic Trials HD and those flash games you used to love as a kid, this game doesn’t offer anything new but it does things perfectly well with the tried and tested formula.

This game relies heavily on your ability to control the physics of the vehicle, as even going too fast on a straight area can cause you to do a wheelie and potentially fall backwards, with a movement of the slide pad required to correct your position and avoid certain death.

As you jump off a ledge, you’ll notice immediately how out of control your bike can be, and you’ll instantly have to level it into position with the slide pad before landing or else face the reality of hitting the ground hard head first.

After the first few levels you’ll grow more confident and as you jump of ledges you’ll get the grips of doing back flips and getting the right speed for certain areas.

The game ramps things up with jump pads later on, moving vehicles that you must land on in the right time and jumps requiring a certain speed to fly through a small area.

The aim of the game is to get the best score possible at the end of each stage which is ranked through a mixture of things such as time taken to complete, tricks pulled off and the amount of ‘deaths’ in a run. At the end of each stage you’ll be given a star rating and shown your position on the worldwide leaderboard.

The leaderboard is integrated seamlessly with your score uploaded automatically and the list shown at the end of each level with little to no loading times. It makes for a nice communal feel and really makes you want to go back and play the levels again to get ever higher in the ranks.

Each level also has bags of money hidden in certain areas, with some in alternate and trickier paths and others way up high, requiring a skilled jump to collect. With money you can buy all sorts of customisable items for your hero (such as a shirt, as you’re initially riding around as a shirtless scoundrel) to more essential upgrades to your bike that can improve the speed and handling.

Each set of levels is split off into different areas with each area being locked until you earn at least an average of 3 stars or more in the previous one. Every stage has a city setting but they’re nice and varied with different areas and themes such as a normal town area, an old rail road and skate parks.

The graphics are fine and while they’re nothing special they are more than passable and use the 3D effect of the 3DS surprisingly well, something that we’re increasingly seeing less of as the system grows older.

The 2.5D effects of the levels are nice but at times a little off putting or confusing, as you may hit something you first thought was in the background or completely miss what you assume to be a platform but what is just outside of your 2D path.

If you’re after a physics-based biking game then this is for you but it offers nothing new outside of those old web-based games and hasn’t evolved with new ideas.