Ubisoft, in conjunction with developer RedLynx, have just announced, trailered, and released the new Trials of the Blood Dragon: a melding of two of the publishers most successful franchises.
Here’s a fun exercise with either wonderful or freakish consequences: take two gaming franchises and smash them together to see what comes pouring out! This is seemingly what happened with Ubisoft’s new bizarre love-child.
Players will take on the roles of Rex Power Colt and Dr Darling (his partner), along with their children Roxane and Slayter. This release comes ahead of accidental confirmation of the game by Michael Biehn himself at London Comic Con last month. Biehn will reprise his role as the gruff-voiced, all-eighties action hero.
The game is being billed as a ‘single-player experience’. Gameplay takes the form of an exciting mixture of Trials, which we have come to know and love, and a run and gun side-scrolling affair filled to the brim with explosions. Well it’s worth noting actually that most of the gameplay in the trailer was filled with explosions.
The presentation is exactly what we’ve come to expect: knowing nods to laser disc loading screens, VHS tracking, and the sickly-coloured pulp trash glory of Saturday morning cartoons. If the first Blood Dragon aped the eighties, then this game seems to skewer the early nineties – the trailer opens with an outrageously over the top (but spot on) pastiche of the action-loaded toy commercials of the era.
The game takes its cues evenly from both franchises: gameplay largely from Trials, with tone and presentation from Blood Dragon. The last Trials game was Trials Fusion back in 2014, so this new release will no doubt be lapped up by Trials-hungry veterans and curious Blood Dragon fans alike.
The game is currently out on PS4, Xbox one, and PC for £11.99 / $14.99.
