Release Date: May 12, 2002
The game consists of counting successive levels (in this game in the strength of seven) collecting as many points as possible for combed tricks on the way. The system of performing the latter has been simplified to a minimum, offering only one button responsible for them (which, however, did not prevent placing in the game an enormous number of tricks to perform).
Skating has come a long way recently. Fifteen years ago, moving around with wheels attached to your feet was known as rollerskating. Now, if you're moving with wheels on your feet you're inline skating, and if you're trying to do tricks and generally risk life and limb you're aggressive inline skating. If you're put off by the thought of breaking limbs while trying to do backflips though, you'll be better off trying Acclaim's Aggressive Inline. Packed full of top pro skaters, and with seven massive levels to flip, grind and skitch through, Aggressive Inline pushes the extreme sports genre to new heights. Instead of timed levels, you'll be playing for 'juice' - when that runs out, it's game over. The Action Button lets you pull crazy tricks with a single button press, and each level is packed with cinematic events that make the game come alive.
There are other innovations waiting for you too, including in-game experience points: the more you trick, jump, grind and fakie (skate backward) the more points you earn. No more hunting around levels for stat points, you just progress naturally depending on how you skate. There's also a huge variety of challenges to complete on each level, from the usual points-based challenges to more obscure ones - like collecting parrots for a Frenchman. Many challenges are activated by skating up to a person at the level and just talking to them, so at times Aggressive Inline even feels a bit like an RPG! No RPG ever had this much fast-paced, free-flowing skate action though - and if it did, we'd be interested to hear about it.
Naturally, Aggressive Inline includes a two-player mode featuring four different games - the obvious Most Points and Best Trick, and the rather more obscure Egg Hunt and Twenty One. There's also a Park Editor included so you can challenge your friends to skate on courses you've created.
You might think you've seen it all in extreme sports games, but Aggressive Inline does offer a number of new twists on an old genre. The juice meter and enormous levels conspire to keep you tricking, grinding and rolling around the huge levels, and just when you think you've seen everything you'll suddenly find an area that you haven't even touched. The number of challenges is massive too, so there's plenty to keep you playing and playing - and perhaps best of all, the unobtrusive experience points system means that your skating skills get better without much of an effort on your part. If you're tired of skating around on a board, perhaps it's time you fitted yourself with some wheels.
* Unique Action Button and Juice Meter keeps you skating longer
* Seven huge levels with 30-60 objectives per level
* Top skating pros featured including Jaren Grob, Chris Edwards and Shane Yost
Platforms:
PlayStation 2
Xbox
GameCube
Developer: Z-axis
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment
Age restrictions: none
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