Most games with vehicles of any form involved tend to be at least playable, despite how similar they are in terms of gameplay. Most involve racing, but this game by Mountain Sheep is more of a platformer involving a Dick Dastardly analogue on a motorbike, doing various stunts and runs that seem quite cartoonish. Bike Baron is a game that pushes game design a bit, moving past the thick line of mediocrity and towards the gradient of insanity.

This game plays a lot like Trials HD, originally released for Xbox Live Arcade. It’s a 3D sidescroller with a vehicle, which is almost like playing Sonic. However, the challenge is in going really fast while still landing at the right places and surviving whatever is in the way. What will really test the player though is that this goes on for a total of 44 stages, which is quite a lot for a mobile game. This isn’t something that you’d just pick up then drop just like that, so it should last quite a bit.

This game also makes a case for the old school idea of extending replay value by increasing the difficulty. While other so-called casual games like to give players some leeway to tickle the pleasure center in their brains, this game seeks to grab hold of the challenge center of the brain and squeeze it for dear life. Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but the difficulty posed by Bike Baron is such that the faint of heart may take offense to how seemingly unwinnable this game is. But once you do get to actually go through a game, it’s quite gratifying.

For those who tend to like completing all achievements and getting all unlockables, this game will be one hell of an ordeal. In order to score three stars for each stage, you’ll need to get good with the controls, which are quite precise and lets you do things right on the money whenever you do get things right. You get to accelerate, brake, tilt to the left and right, and so on. The mechanics in the game are such that they’re very basic, but it’s the hectic pace and the obstacles that really make this game a bit of a hardship.

Another feature in this game that does well here is the track editor, which is surprisingly good in that you can make your own custom track and have it be assigned a 4-digit code so that you can call it up whenever you want. This gives the game a significant amount of replay value, especially since you can play the sadist and make an insanely difficult track and have your friends play it. That in itself also gives the game a bit of a competitive factor. Not a lot of mobile games get to do that successfully, but Bike Baron may just get it for you.

While insanely difficult, it’s also quite good as a game on its own. Bike Baron costs only a dollar and perhaps your life for the next few days of trying to beat every stage. This is a game that you really play and not just watch and interact with every once in a while.