Aggressive Inline

Z-Axis for PS2

Extreme Sports

1-2 Players

The first non-THPS extreme sports game that might make some players ask "Tony who?"

In some ways, yes it is. Although Aggressive Inline owes its very existence to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series (and borrows nearly all of its major gameplay features) it also builds on that foundation and strikes out in some innovative ways that add depth to the gameplay mechanics as well as the replay value of the game.

The control is excellent – this is the main area where past contenders for the extreme sports game throne have fallen on their faces. Z-Axis (creators of the original THPS competitor ‘Thrasher’ chose to stick closely to the familiar control scheme of the Hawk games, while adding some interesting new abilities to spice things up. Your skater can perform all of the expected moves – grinds, handstand, air tricks, manuals and even reverts to allow linking between big air tricks (they work even better here than in THPS3 because there is little or no speed deterioration between tricks). You can also grab vertical or horizontal poles and swing from them (a move lifted from Namco’s Airblade, but again it works much better here). Aggressive Inline brings the ability to vault over low obstacles and half-pipe lips to the table. Vaulting counts toward tricks and combo points, and you can vault into a manual to keep your line going. It also allows you to quickly get over obstacles or reach new areas.

The level design is for the most part excellent as well. The stages are big – the first stage alone is about 5 times as big as THPS3’s Foundry. The levels are also filled with different kinds of terrain – the movie studio stage, for example, has a traffic-filled street, a studio lot and an indoor soundstage with several movie environments. Adding to the immense size of the stages is the fact that in later levels you can find keys to open secret areas of earlier stages. Returning to an earlier level to find an entirely new area unlocked, complete with new challenges, adds tremendous replay to the game. In a move that seems designed to poke fun at THPS3, one of the hidden areas in the Movie Studio stage is a haunted house (THPS3 also had a haunted house area which needed a key to become available to the player).

Each level has several challenges to complete. Many of them are accessible right from the start of the level via a handy checklist. Some of the more obscure challenges allow you to press O to watch a short camera flyby of the objective area. New challenges can be found throughout the levels as well by talking to people or using certain objects. Even more challenges become unlocked as you complete the starting set of goals.

In a radical departure from the norm, there is no time limit in the single player career mode of the game. Instead, your ‘Juice Meter’ slowly drains, and you must keep it full by performing tricks and combos. Because the levels are packed with things to trick off of, keeping the meter filled is never difficult. Because of this, you have all the time you’ll need to leisurely explore each massive level and figure out how to accomplish all of the goals.

Graphically, Aggressive Inline looks very good, with lots of details and animation to the huge levels, a nearly rock solid 60 frames per second speed (slight slowdown can occur if you do something that requires a lot of animation in an area where there’s a lot of background movement, but it never becomes a problem) and excellent animation on the skaters.

Although Aggressive Inline features a robust skate park editor lifted almost directly from THPS3, there’s no custom skater mode, which is kind of a disappointment. Also, multiplayer is good but there’s no H.O.R.S.E., which has been a staple of the THPS series since the start.

Hands down, it’s the Boardwalk. This amusement park stage features an interactive ferris wheel (one challenge has you holding a handplant on one of the seats for a full rotation of the wheel) and a swinging shark-boat. It’s also got a homicidal clown handing out challenges and some hilarious public service announcements ("do not eat the brown cotton candy").

Graphics – 8 (Excellent throughout, solid frame rate and almost no clipping or draw-in in the immense levels)

Sound – 8 (Good soundtrack featuring real bands, skating sounds and voice work is also well done)

Replay – 10 (Tons of challenges per stage, secret areas you’ll have to find keys to unlock in later levels, hidden skaters and giant stages)

Overall (not an average): 8.5