Played on:
PS2
We've seen plenty of extreme sports games since Tony Hawk's Pro Skater revitalized the genre a few years ago. And while Neversoft's Tony Hawk games have since led the way in new features and graphics over the years since, surely other developers can come up with something as good or better, right? With the exception of the excellent SSX games, it's been a long time getting to that point. Z-Axis, developers of the Dave Mirra BMX games, have delivered a game that's got the Tony Hawk charm combined with lots of goals to attain and its own unique features.
Aggressive Inline boasts an excellent graphics engine, huge levels, 10 pro skaters to use, great controls, open-ended gameplay without two minute timers, character stats in the style of RPG's, and all of the features you'd expect out of a game intended to appeal to THPS players.
The first thing you'll notice with Aggressive Inline is that Z-Axis has tried to make everyone happy with the control scheme they selected. The controls are a tad different than other games of this type, but they are still easy to adapt to. All of the main combo capabilities from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 are here, including manuals and reverts (which are called Cess Slides).
Instead of a mode where you skate "switch", Aggressive Inline has a Fakie system where you skate backwards. This is an improvement over other games, since you won't have to look at an icon in the corner of the screen to know when you're fakie. Plus, you get to see your skater's front side a little more often (which can be interesting with the female characters - more later).
The controls are somewhat more forgiving than THPS3 as well. Spinning during big air tricks is possible and will give you more points, but it's not as important as in other games - it means that bails due to landing sideways are somewhat minimized. It's easier to grab things like rails to grind on if you're about to crash, and if you accidentally pop off of the side of a half pipe, you can right yourself in mid-air before landing on the ground. Transferring big air moves into grinds is very easy, almost comically so. Overall, it means you get to spend more time perfecting combos than trying to correct bails.
Since you're using inline skates here rather than a skateboard or a bike, you might expect to see a smaller set of moves to do. And overall, the tricks you can pull off aren't as diverse as you'd see in other games, but Z-Axis did a good job with the ones you have. There are lots of flips and grabs to do, and all can be done with a single trick button - if you want to spin during the moves, you are forced to use the shoulder buttons (unlike the THPS games, where holding left or right on the d-pad allows you to spin).
The slight lack of trick diversity has been made up for by a few completely new moves, like vaults and the ability to swing on poles, both of which allow you to reach areas you might not have been able to before. It's definitely a different system than what you may be used to, but I find it to be about as good as the THPS style.
Simply put, Aggressive Inline has a great game engine behind it. The levels are just plain huge, with multiple large areas to explore. The frame rate is usually around 60fps, with a few rare drops into the 20's and 30's. Z-Axis really outdid themselves this time, with one of the best engines I've seen for this kind of game.
Of course, huge levels are no good if they're empty. With Aggressive Inline, though, that's not the case - they're full of ramps and rails to do tricks off of, with plenty of stuff moving around (cars, people, and, in some levels, machinery). Every level has all kinds of detail and little things to notice, and the secret areas in the main levels are usually worth the effort to unlock. The themes of each of the game's 7 massive levels are pretty varied, although the Movie Set, Museum, and Civic Center were my favorites.
The skaters you will use are animated pretty well - they're about as good as the ones in THPS3. There are 10 real-life skaters you can use, as well as a pair of female skaters that Z-Axis threw in. The Chrissy skater is the one you might have heard of - her skirt flies up constantly, and her breasts bounce in such an exaggerated fashion, you might get in trouble with the wife or girlfriend when you play as her.
This is what these games always come down to - how much replay value does it have, and how fun is it to try and complete everything? I'm pleased to say that Aggressive Inline is one of the most fun games of this type I have played. The unique character building system is one of the best things about it, where you don't just pick up stat point powerups in the levels. Instead, doing specific moves will give you experience points that go towards levelling your skater up in that area (jump, speed, spin, grinds, fakie, etc.). Bigger tricks will give you tons of XP in those stats, so you'll want to keep the combos going.
