Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes you just don't know when to quit. You're getting your ass kicked from every possible angle and though you can see where it all will end, the journey will kill you instead of making you stronger. The thing is, you love every second of it and gleefully go back for more again and again. Such is the way of Trials 2: Second Edition.

As soon as I finished the demo for Trials 2 I knew I had to have it, and the $9.95 price tag made this impulse decision very easy. Next thing I know it's over an hour later and I'm WAY past my bed time. The game does one thing and does it tremendously well: you drive a dirt bike from left to right through excellent physics-based obstacles. That's it. Think of it as the ultimate combination of Excitebike and N+, minus the overheating. You must learn how to gracefully control your bike with precision and the reflexes of a cheetah if you want any hope of getting through most of the courses.

When you "die" (your driver is "knocked unconscious") you can easily and quickly restart either the whole track or jump back to the last checkpoint which is great because you will die. Many, many, many times, even on a single course. The clock keeps ticking while you're getting your bearings after a fall or trying to line up the perfect angle for the next jump so that your finishing time is how long it took you to complete overall. That time is then uploaded to a server and you have instant feedback on just how much you suck at this game. The desire to go from 7,743 in the world to 5,132 make it infinitely replayable.

Trials 2: SE isn't loaded with incredible features which isn't a knock on the game. It doesn't need them. There are the previously mentioned leaderboards, but no tried and true multiplayer to be found. Instead you can race against ghosts of anyone on the leaderboards. Your profile full of stats is also available for anyone to peruse.

It's as fun to watch as it is to play. The satisfaction of combining the perfect touch of control with slipping through the course is almost unrivaled. It's that perfect marriage of grace and skill that really needs to be experienced to appreciate. This game is as challenging as games get but much like N+ it never discourages you to stop playing. You know you can make that damn crazy jump and you're this close...just a few more times before you go to bed, promise.

Check out some gameplay of one of the more difficult levels:

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