The Isle of Man TT is an annual race that embodies the essence of pushing a rider to the limit. Developer Kylotton Entertainment set out to put players in the position of the legendary riders who take it upon themselves to compete in this race and go even further beyond with TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge. The experience, to say the least, was truly thrilling. While I still debate that the angles achieved in turns by race bikes are borderline witchcraft, I couldn’t help but be caught in the games nifty ability to keep me coming back for more.

You start off the game with a cinematic trailer that tries to form an emotional connection between player, rider, and bike. With long sweeping bends and sun-kissed scenery, it really does add to the atmosphere of the game. Once you watch the short cinematic, you can access the career mode which takes you to a brief custom rider creator that allows you to choose from an array of colours, deciding your rider name, and which country you come from. The career is fairly basic with events littered throughout the year as you climb the ranks and beat the legends that came before you.

While being repetitive, the career is just there to teach you the ins and outs of the courses more than trying to give you a thrilling progressive experience. Needless to say, this is one of the few downsides of the game. After riding the same circuit three times in a row, you tend to lose the enthusiasm you had for it the first time.



I haven’t been excited about many motorcycle games recently as they tend to be the same thing over and over again, and never really capture my attention with anything new or exciting. TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge, however, is very hard to turn a blind eye to because it offers something its competitors can’t - the legendary Snaefell Mountain Course in all its sinuous, 60Km glory and in exceptional detail. If anything else doesn’t catch your attention, this single circuit, which takes around 20 minutes a lap on a racing bike, is absolutely the reason to get this game.

What sets it apart from the pristine tracks in MotoGP is the undulations littered across the circuits. You aren’t just seeing how fast you can go on a track designed for bikes, but instead, you’re riding a bike built for the track on the road. This brings a new form of life to the bikes as they skip across the surface, and you have to manage your speed as you are going over a crest or you’ll end up feeling just how close to the edge you can get in this game. In a game where your bike is regularly at triple digits, it’s your job to make sure that you are always on the tarmac and not in somebody’s kitchen window.

The sensation of speed in this game left me in awe as trees turned into one solid patch of green when my bike started reaching the limits of what speed an object can move at before travelling into outer space. Big Ben interactive had a hand in making rally tight racing games such as WRC 5 and it is clear to see the influence here. Riding in the Snaefell course felt more like navigating through a rally game rather being a circuit racer, with scenery being within elbow grazing distance and more corners than you can keep up with.



There are more courses than just the Snaefell course, but they’re made for the game and noticeably less intuitive than the game’s centerpiece. Although I prefer that that they chose to focus more on the Snaefell course as it is the main attraction. There is careful attention to detail in the attempt at recreating the track. Whether it be the sharp corners, the tight turns, the close proximity of fences and foliage, or even the stagnant sheep that stands next to a farmer that cheers you on with his fist in the air; I appreciated just how immersive riding this course was. Bumps aren’t just there for show either. If you’re riding the course too aggressively and there happens to be a slight bump in the road, your bike will change trajectory as fast as it can climb to 100km/h. Needless to say that it only frustrated me that I couldn’t see the bump coming in the first place.

The main aim of the game is not to give you a thrilling career, but instead to have you beat yourself. The reason I kept coming back for more was to whittle down my lap times as I got to experience more and more of Snaefell’s amazing recreation. Honestly, I’m still taken back by just how big this course is. Not only that, but they also managed to create a damn near perfect reproduction of motorsports most dangerous course. This is a genuine achievement. It is one thing to recreate a 3-minute track, but one that spans over 60Km and has that many technical turns and undulations are truly a breathtaking task to accomplish.

The sound quality of the game is par for the course as bike notes each hold a different sound signature. I did find that occasionally there would be full throttle sound blips when the bike is at low revs, even without hitting a bump. There is also a subtle wind noise that comes as you go over 250Km/h which does add to the exhilarating sensation of speed. My one gripe with the sound choice would have to go the sound played after deciding if you’re going to an event in the career mode. It’s loud and sounds as if somebody dropped a guitar on your foot. I found it to be a very unnecessary addition. Other sounds follow the theme of bikes revving to let you’re starting a race.



The physics of this game differs by skill level as you can tweak rider aids and controls. You can go from beginner all the way to simulation, but I felt that semi-pro tends to be the sweet spot in terms of my style of riding. You can really feel the bike lose traction and read all the bumps on the road. If you’re overaggressive you’ll lose control of the bike and simply crash out. The rag-doll physics during this crash animations are hilarious, to say the least, but short enough that you can always get back to the race as soon as possible.

The saddest part of my experience reviewing this game is that I encountered a game breaking bug. During the career mode, I partook in a series of races to which in the end result the game simply crashed and I could not continue any further. This does not hinder the experience of the gameplay nor did it change my mind towards the game. An update in the future should be able to fix this issue. That also goes to say that it could have just been the copy we received and may not even affect others.

TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge is a game that ignores almost everything in the pursuit to recreating the TT, but just how well this was done makes it a very rewarding bike racer experience. Although the career suffers from repetition, this does not take away from the core experience of the game; a game that was designed around a Snaefell course and does so brilliantly. If you’re interested in motorsport, this game would become a welcomed addition to your collection. Now, if you will excuse me. I have a lap record to break.