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Red Bull’s Bike Unchained Brings New Dimensions to Mountain Bike Video Games

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Given that many of us grew up in the days of video games, it probably isn’t surprising that games based on mountain biking have a cult following. Trails are too wet to ride? Rest day? Stuck at the airport between flights to exotic riding destinations? Why not ride some virtual laps on your smart phone or tablet? Based on the success of Reinholds Berzins’ Downhill Supreme and DHS2, there are quite a few riders out there who enjoy shredding smart phone laps when they’re not ripping the real thing.

Wanting to capture the feeling of A-Line’s flow in a video game, Red Bull Media House and Roadhouse Interactive teamed up to produce Bike Unchained – a new game for your smart phone or tablet that combines the features of your typical mountain bike video game with those of an RPG (Role Playing Game), and it’s free…

 

As with any good RPG, Bike Unchained needed a good story line that combined real Red Bull athletes, mountain biking, and multiple disciplines of riding. Not straying too far from reality, your goal is to prevent the evil Praedor Developments from ruing the best riding spots with expensive condos. To do so you’ll be coached by none other than Velosolutions’ wild man Claudio Caluori as you climb the ranks and race as actual riders including Brandon Semenuk, Martin Soderstrom, Yannick Granieri, Thomas Genon, Gee and Rachel Atherton, Andreu Lacondeguy, and Aaron Gwin.

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Compared to other mountain biking games, Bike Unchained is less two dimensional and includes slopestyle, Enduro, and downhill racing. In addition to controlling the speed of the rider with natural flow on the trails, tricks have been added in to allow for slopestyle competition, as well as the need to tap the screen to pedal during Enduro sections. Riding takes place in Whistler, Japan, and the Alps with additional locations to be added in future app updates (Roadhouse hints at Rampage being added first).

Winning events will gain you parts upgrades, Obtanium, Gold, XP, and badges which can all be used to better your rider, though certain parts and riders will be needed for certain events which is part of the story line. Available for both Android and iOS platforms, both apps are free to download though they do offer in-app purchases so if you are downloading this for your kid, make sure in-app purchases are turned off or password protected.

As far as we can tell, Bike Unchained is just as addictive (if not more) as any mountain biking app we’ve tried – which might make it perfect if you need some alone time this holiday season…

redbull.com

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Joe Something
Joe Something
8 years ago

really fun game until you’re limited on what gear you can put on a rider because of real world sponsor. Got a sick new fork or frame? To bad can’t use it.

Kingdevin
Kingdevin
8 years ago

Go ride and if your waiting to go to ride, just f**Kin wait for the real thing.

captain derp
captain derp
8 years ago

having played the game, the whole storyline killed it for me and i uninstalled it. when i’m playing games on my phone i want something i don’t wanna devote a lot of time to, i just want to jump in and play for a few minutes, not deal with a story line or overly complex upgrade system, or long load times. i get that some people see the appeal to it, i’m just not one of them.

Will
Will
8 years ago

It’s not bad, but way to complex and you keep winning the same parts etc over and over.. If they simplified it I might go back to it, but I got sick of all the options, they need to follow the KISS principle… And the story line.. Gahhhhhhhhh

Seraph
Seraph
8 years ago

Agreed that the storyline concept is kinda silly. They should have a freestyle mode where it’s just about getting the top score on leaderboards or among your friends.

JBurridge
JBurridge
8 years ago

I thought it was pretty bad. Graphics and physics are OK, but pedalling makes you go slower (!?), if you don’t press the ‘flow’ / ‘pump’ button through corners the rider outs their foot out and slows down (!?), Oh, and there is no steering. None. Bizarre.

And theres so many different types of credit / transactions and the only way to get a full team is to pay real money.

The storyline is WAY too complex, the pick-up-and-play factor is nearly zero. If the gameplay was quick and good, I might bother to buy some riders. I’ve stopped playing it and will uninstall soon. Shame.

Tony
Tony
8 years ago

What killed it for me (as others have eluded to) is the complexity and lack of purpose in the upgrade system. Forcing the user to jump through hoops and go in to many subscreens just to ‘injest’ experience they’ve been given or add a part to a bike when the simple numbers clearly tell you what’s better is silly. When it’s so clear cut, the bike should just be built for you for the event. It’s not as if you’re going to pick a slopestyle bike for an enduro race in this game.

captain derp
captain derp
8 years ago

for anyone interested…. there’s a mtb game called “bike mayhem” that has been my go to. no story mode, no overly complex upgrade systems, quick loads. and honestly i felt it had better physics.

cscf
cscf
8 years ago

what does this have to do with e-bikes?

Jason
Jason
2 years ago

What ever happened to this game? It’s gone from the play store. So I downloaded the 2nd one and it falls WAY flat of the original. I actually uninstalled it, as I was expecting something along the lines of or better than the original. I actually e-mailed the dev’s, still waiting for a reply. Just curious why the Red Bull Bike Unchained 2 is horrible in comparison to the first one.

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