Weekly Little Big Planet: Roy G. 450cc

Trials Evolution track of the week: Rainbow Road. Track designer: LatChoX. Difficulty: Medium.

I’m flying on this track. I’ve totally nailed the opening, where you immediately have to finesse the throttle so you approach that first trough with just enough momentum to be able to nail the first jump, but not so much that you smash into the incline. I’ve learned not to over-think the loop. I clear the track without a fault. Great. I’m flying.

On the leaderboard I’m somewhere past one thousand. What the hell?

I start thinking about parity. I’m riding a Scorpion 450cc. That’s the best bike I’ve unlocked so far, the best bike I can unlock given my license level. Am I supposed to put in more track time in the game before I mess around with the community tracks? No. That can’t be it. But still, I realize I’m running against folks with far better bikes. How am I supposed to compete with them? This doesn’t come up in LBP. In LittleBigPlanet, all sacks are equal. My sackboy is only limited by his human. Not so in Trials Evolution. Here we are also limited by our equipment. Ahem. At first I find this disturbing. Then I find it brilliant. There’s a sort of feedback loop here. A reason to return to the actual game beyond cosmetics. If I get more medals I’ll get a higher license and a better bike, and thus a better time on this community designed track. I start to see a beautiful back and forth.

Rainbow Road, you deserve to be featured on your own merits, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that our president’s announcement about marriage equality this week helped your chances. Politics aside, once I get a better bike, I will be back. You can count on it.

Rainbow Road was designed by LatChoX.