Bike Rivals 10/24/2014

Image from Google Play

Bike Rivals comes to use from Miniclip and Profusion Studios.  The game is  a physics based motocross  game where the player touches the right side of the screen for "Gas" to make the bike rider move, and the left side to "Brake", obviously keep the bike from moving.  Steering is done from tilting the mobile device backwards or forwards, which does not have too much to do with the bike rider until he is in the air or on a hill.  Each stage is scored by stars, each one with a time requirement, i.e. a player earns three stars for the stage for completing it in 25 seconds.

Image from 148Apps

Once the player's bike has become airborne, tilting the device can make him lean backwards or forwards, allowing him to perform a "trick", such as a backflip. Performing tricks is not necessary, but does earn the player nitro that can be used for a temporary speed boost.

The levels play like they were designed by a disgruntled Angry Birds designer, having steep hills, giant boulders, and exploding barrels litter the path, making it more and more difficult to get to the finish line.  While these are really cool features, it does contribute to the game's biggest annoying feature: death.

If you die and have to start over from either one of the very few and far between checkpoints or from the beginning of the level.  You die from the bike rider's body touching anything that is not his bike.  Did you pop a wheelie on a hill and now the rider's head has gingerly caressed the hill in front of him? Death.  Were you doing a backflip and his head grazed the ceiling?  Death.  Did you ever so slowly tip your bike backwards and the rider has now decided to try to take a nap?  Death.  Dying is understandable when your several hundred pound bike has sunken into the ocean or the rider has plowed straight through an exploding barrel.  However, there will be plenty of times where you will scratch your head and yell "REALLY?!?" at your phone.

Additional bikes that have different stats can be purchased, or unlocked from certain tasks, as well as linking yet one more game to your Facebook account.  It is not having an alternative to real money, so I will give credit where credit is deserved.  There is also a multiplayer mode to unlock, which does break up the monotony of pleasedon'tdiepleasedon'tdiepleasedon'tdieIdied.

If you enjoy physics games and/or racing games, this will be a good fit.  It has a lot of stages and many different bikes to unlock which does give it some replay value.  If you don't mind a few frustrating stages designed seemingly specifically to make you curse, give this a try.  It's classic Miniclip and a unique alternative to other games on the Play Store.