Games like Trials start here with Mars Rally Championship, a free browser rally game listed first because it is ours: it keeps the medal times, ghosts and instant restarts on Mars, with a rally rover instead of a bike, so it keeps the time-attack half of Trials, not the balance half. On merit, the closest are Urban Trial Playground, a stunt-bike time trial with ghosts and leaderboards, and Elasto Mania, the 2D bike-physics classic. Trackmania is where many Trials players moved for the time attack, by the r/TrialsGames community's own account.
In-game screenshot: the rover leaves the ground on Stage 4's open descent after gate 14, its wheels hanging at full droop.
Is there a new Trials game?
No. Trials Rising, released on 26 February 2019 by RedLynx and Ubisoft for Windows, PS4, Xbox One and Switch (Stadia followed in November 2019), is the latest game in the series, according to Wikipedia. It is still on sale: the Steam page lists it at $19.99. No successor has been confirmed in the sources checked, so this post does not guess at one.
That gap is why people search for alternatives. The games below each keep some of the idea; the useful question is which parts you miss.
What makes a game feel like Trials?
Four parts do the work. Judge any alternative against them.
- Physics you balance. You steer a vehicle with throttle and lean, and the physics, not a script, decides whether you clear the obstacle.
- Short tracks with checkpoints and a fault count. A run is short, and a crash costs you something specific.
- Medal times. A target to beat, set by time and by how clean you were.
- Ghosts and leaderboards. Someone faster than you, visible on the same track.
Trials HD, an earlier game in the series, states the rules plainly: finish the course as fast as possible with as few crashes, which the game calls faults, as you can. It is played on a 2D plane, and you can control the bike's pitch at slow speed or in the air. Medals depend on both completion time and number of faults, and critics found the difficulty curve steep.
Most Trials-likes keep one or two of those four parts. A bike game with checkpoints but no ghosts is a different experience from a car game with ghosts and no balance.
In-game screenshot: a bronze finish on The Opener, and the results screen names the next medal: silver at 1:33.1.
Methodology: each game's store or developer page, checked 7 November 2026, with "not confirmed" wherever those pages do not say. Last checked: November 2026.
Games like Trials, compared
Mars Rally Championship is first because it is ours; the rest are ranked by how much of Trials they keep. The table shows what the store and developer pages confirm, and where they are silent it says so.
| Game | Vehicle and view | Checkpoints and crashes | Ghosts or leaderboards | Platforms | Price (7 Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mars Rally Championship Play | Rally rover, 3D, Mars gravity | T puts you back at the last gate, clock running; R restarts at once | PB and board ghosts; every board run re-simulated, with replays | Browser: desktop, Chromebook, phone in landscape | Free |
| Urban Trial Playground | Stunt bike, side-on | Not confirmed | Ghost in Time Trial; online leaderboards on 50+ levels | Windows, Mac, Linux | $6.99 on Steam |
| Elasto Mania Remastered | Motorbike, 2D | Not confirmed | Online leaderboards; level editor | Windows | $9.99 on Steam |
| Trials Rising | Trials bike, 2.5D | Faults per crash (series rule) | Online competition; Track Central editor | Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Switch | $19.99 on Steam |
| Trackmania | Car, 3D | Respawn at checkpoints (not confirmed on the store page) | Rankings, weekly player tracks | Windows (Steam) | Free Starter Access; Club Access paid |
| X-Moto | Motorbike, 2D | Not confirmed | Online high scores | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free, open source |
| Moto X3M | Dirt bike, side-on | Respawn at last checkpoint, timer keeps running | Star rating per level | Browser (Poki) | Free |
| Descenders | Downhill bike, 3D | Not confirmed | Steam leaderboards; online Rep | Windows, Mac, Linux | $24.99 list on Steam |
| Lonely Mountains: Downhill | Mountain bike, 3D | Not confirmed | Steam leaderboards | Windows, Mac | $19.99 on Steam |
The checkpoint and crash column is mostly "not confirmed" because store pages describe vehicles and modes, not what happens after a crash. Check a video before you pay if that rule matters to you.
Mars Rally Championship: Trials' time attack, without the bike
Our game, listed first for that reason. This is Mars Rally Championship's own site; everything below it is ranked by how much of Trials it keeps. Mars Rally Championship is a free 3D rally game that runs in the browser with no download, no install and no account, on a desktop, a Chromebook or a phone in landscape, and a controller works. You drive one four-wheeled rally rover, not a bike, across four stages: The Eight (2,676 m, at night), The Long Run (2,306 m), The Opener (1,164 m) and Down the Mountain (1,689 m, at sunset).
What it keeps from Trials is the time attack. Medal pars come from the route length divided by 9, 12.5 and 16 metres per second for bronze, silver and gold. On The Opener, the shortest stage, gold is 1:12.8 and the author time is 1:04.0. After a finish, the results screen names the next medal and the time you need to beat it. Reversed and storm boards skip medals.
Retries are fast. R restarts, putting you straight on the start line with no countdown mid-run. T puts you back at the last gate you cleared, upright and facing the next gate, with the clock still running.
Ghosts are the second thing it keeps. Your personal best races beside you as a blue ghost, drawn as the full rover at 60% opacity. A challenge link races you against one board run. The server re-simulates every leaderboard run from its input tape before it posts the time, and every board run has REPLAY and RACE links. The Opener leaderboard shows 100 runs a sheet, and ghost racing explains how the ghosts work.
In-game screenshot: your personal-best ghost, a see-through copy of the rover, runs just ahead on The Opener as you approach gate 3.
The air is different from Trials. The game runs Mars gravity, 3.72 m/s², which is 0.38 g, so a jump hangs longer. How high you can jump on Mars covers the numbers. The Proving Ground tutorial ends with a timed mini-race that includes a jump, and it starts here.
Now the limits, plainly. There is no bike and no rider lean, so the balance half of Trials is missing. The stages are rally routes over open terrain, not obstacle courses. There is no fault count: a crash costs time and damage, never a fault. There are four stages, and players cannot build or publish tracks, because the level editor is a development tool. The views are 3D chase and helmet cameras, not side-on. For the medal-and-ghost loop in a browser tab, The Opener is the short stage to try.
Play free — no downloadUrban Trial Playground: the closest Trials-style game on PC
Urban Trial Playground is the nearest match on the table. It is a stunt-bike game set on the California beaches, from Tate Multimedia and Teyon, released on 5 April 2019 for Windows, Mac and Linux at $6.99 on Steam. Its Steam page promises online leaderboards across 50+ levels in the Freestyle and Time Trial modes, and says you can challenge your ghost in Time Trial. Independent front and rear brakes allow stoppies and front flips.
That covers the physics, ghost and leaderboard parts. What the page does not say is how crashes are handled, so a fault count is not confirmed.
Elasto Mania Remastered: 2D bike physics since 2000
Its Steam page calls it an indie motorbike simulation game, a colorful 2D racing experience first released in 2000 as a successor to Action SuperCross. The Remastered version, from the Elasto Mania Team and Balazs Rozsa, came out on 25 May 2020 for Windows at $9.99. It has online leaderboards, play with a friend, more than a hundred additional levels, and a level editor.
Elasto Mania, known as Elma, has been around since 2000. Checkpoint and crash rules are not confirmed on the store page.
Trials Rising: still the one to beat
Trials Rising is the series itself. It has tracks set around the world, including the Great Wall, New York and the Eiffel Tower, a Tandem Bike mode with two riders on one bike, and online competition. Track Central lets players create and share levels using over 10,000 items. At $19.99 on Steam, it is the only entry here that is Trials.
Trackmania: where Trials players went for the time attack
Trackmania is the most common answer when Trials players ask where to go next. In the r/TrialsGames thread "Games like Trials", the top reply recommends it and says a lot of players have moved from Trials to Trackmania. That is community opinion, not a measurement.
On Steam since 2 February 2023 from Nadeo and Ubisoft, it is free to start. Free Starter Access includes the easiest tracks of each season's official campaign, you can race the best player-made tracks every week and climb regional rankings, and the track editors offer over 3,000 building blocks and items. The 1-Year Club Access paid tier unlocks the full seasonal campaigns. It is a car game, so you trade balance for speed. Our posts on Trackmania in a browser and games like PolyTrack and Trackmania cover the free and browser routes into the same loop.
X-Moto: free, open source and still updated
X-Moto describes itself as a challenging 2D motocross platform game, where physics plays an all-important role in the gameplay. Version 0.6.3 came out on 31 March 2025, with downloads for Windows, macOS (arm64) and Linux (AppImage), and the site has online High Scores and Levels pages. It is free and open source under the GPL.
It is the free 2D bike-physics option on this list. What happens on a crash is not confirmed. Download it from xmoto.org.
Moto X3M: a free Trials-style bike game in the browser
Moto X3M, by Madpuffers on Poki, is the one entry here that runs in a browser tab and uses a bike. It has 50 levels of dirt-bike tracks packed with spinning saw blades, explosives, collapsing ramps and moving platforms, and performing flips decreases your time. The timer starts the moment you move. Up arrow accelerates, down brakes, and left and right balance the bike.
Its page spells out the crash rule. Crashes do not end the level: you respawn at the last checkpoint, but the timer keeps running, which lowers your star rating. Its ranking is a star rating per level, not a leaderboard or a ghost.
Descenders and Lonely Mountains: Downhill: the mountain-bike branch
If you came for bikes rather than obstacle courses, Descenders and Lonely Mountains: Downhill are the 3D branch. Descenders, from RageSquid and No More Robots, was released on 7 May 2019 and costs $24.99 list on Steam (it was discounted on 7 November 2026). It is extreme downhill freeriding in procedurally generated worlds, with an in-depth physics system, an online Rep system and Steam leaderboards.
Lonely Mountains: Downhill, from Megagon Industries, was released on 23 October 2019 for Windows and Mac at $19.99. Its Steam page says each bike handles differently and lists Steam leaderboards. Neither page states a checkpoint or crash rule.
Which game like Trials should you play?
Pick by the part of Trials you miss.
- The bike and the obstacles: Urban Trial Playground on PC, or Elasto Mania Remastered for the 2D classic.
- Free, on a PC: X-Moto, or Trackmania's free Starter Access.
- Free, in a browser, on a bike: Moto X3M.
- The time attack, ghosts and medals, in a browser: Mars Rally Championship, with a rover instead of a bike.
- The original: Trials Rising.
The crash rule is the quickest way to feel the difference. In Trials a crash adds a fault, and medals weigh time and faults together. In Moto X3M a crash respawns you at the last checkpoint while the timer keeps running and your star rating drops. In Mars Rally Championship, T returns you to the last gate with the clock running, and R restarts at once. In Urban Trial Playground the page promises a ghost to race in Time Trial.
Diagram: the crash rule side by side: a fault in Trials, a checkpoint respawn on a running timer in Moto X3M, T or R in Mars Rally Championship.
If you want a ghost to chase without installing anything, time trial racing games and ghost racing games list more browser and PC options, and games like Hill Climb Racing covers the 2D physics side from the mobile end.