Let's face it, walking is boring - so boring that as we grow up we long to own a car to introduce an element of excitement to our travels. However, once old enough to own a car most will quickly realise that they're more likely to grow wings and fly around town than to afford one. But all is not lost! Long ago a frustrated and penniless speed freak put wheels on his shoes to see if he could make his journeys more interesting. He succeeded. Many years later and the age of the inline skating is upon us, being the fashionable way to travel. With skating not enough of a thrill for some, people started trying to perform tricks and after some rather interesting, if dangerous, ideas and no doubt a few broken limbs, an extreme sport was born. A game was bound to follow and developers Z-Axis were always the likely culprits to do it.

Developed by Z-Axis and published by Acclaim the game already has a good parentage and so you can expect to discover a well-rounded and balanced game. In fact if you get hooked on the game, which is almost inevitable, then you will discover that it is both amazing and huge. There are a number of modes including career mode, free skate, timed run and two player. Free skate and timed run are exactly as they sound you get the chance to either skate around a level and practice or face the clock. Two player mode offers five different options, of either the hunt or challenge variety. Challenge modes are simple, a face off between players to get the highest points in a set time or to see who can pull off the best trick. Hunt games are as the name suggests based around the search for particular items. Egg hunt is one of the games and is a challenge to get the most eggs in the time allocated where as one of the others called twenty one is a hunt to find the two playing cards that give you a black jack score of twenty one.

The career mode is where the majority of the game play and also the focus of the game can be found. You select your player from nine real inline skaters and two fictional ones, including Vert World Champion Taig Khris and Street World Champion Jaren Grob. Each skater has different skills that can be increased during the course of the career mode play. The skills reflect the ability of the skater to perform different styles of tricks such as jumps, flips, grinds, manuals, wall rides, speed and others. The more you successfully complete tricks and stunts, the more the proficiency level of the relevant skill increases.

There are seven levels in total with a new one being unlocked when you reach a certain percentage of completion in the current level. All are based around real world environments including a Hollywood studio, canning factory and airport. Each level is full of animation and seems to have a life of its own. In the Hollywood level there is a traffic laden road system and pedestrians walking the streets. The Broad walk level has a fully functioning amusement park with working roller coasters and Ferris wheel. The pedestrians will interact with you as well albeit shout abuse at you as you skate too close to them or knock them off their feet. You can also use the traffic to pull you along the road in the Hollywood level by grabbing onto a vehicle as it passes you.

The point of career mode is to complete the challenges assigned to you for each level. These can be as mundane as completing a series of grinds or achieving a certain score within a set time limit. They can also be as involving as grinding along traffic light pylons, pulling off perfect stunt combinations for a photographer or film maker and also performing a number of gravity defying stunts within one jump. As you complete these challenges, new ones become available and your exploration of the level will bring you into contact with various people and even the occasional ghost! When you eventually complete all of the challenges in a level then special characters are unlocked to skate with ranging from the Bride of Frankenstein to a Greek statue.

Each of the levels is huge, truly immense when you compare it to other games of the same genre but Z-Axis have gone a few steps further to ensure that you get the absolute maximum out of the game. Firstly certain areas of some levels physically change when you complete challenges to reveal new areas and more challenges. In the Hollywood level a boulder can be dislodged to create another obstacle that tricks can be performed around and on. In other levels similar events can happen but all result in the creation of new areas over which points can be racked up and challenges completed. Another great is the locked areas. Once you begin to progress through the later levels you can obtain keys that will unlock doors to new areas in previous levels. These new areas are absolutely huge - often as big if not bigger than the original level! Once all doors have been unlocked a level will be so massive that it could easily take the best part of the day to explore every single last section. Finally, Z-Axis has made sure that each of the levels is packed with obstacles, ramps and items that to grind along, vault over, ride on and swing around. There will never be a time when you are not more than a five second skate from a potential trick or stunt. Even the most mundane or normal looking piece of scenery can be used to rack up points and complete challenges.

Other brilliant features are things such as the stunt bar. Instead of being put up against the clock during a level you have something similar to a life bar. As you complete stunts, tricks or challenges the bar fills and if you fail to pull off a trick or do not attempt any the bar gradually empties, with the game over when it empties completely. Due to the nature of the levels and the mind-boggling number of potential tricks and stunts that can be performed throughout, you could quite possibly never actually end the game provided you keep pulling off stunts. Once the bar reaches maximum it starts to flash and flame trails appear from your skates as your skater is now quite literally on fire. Whilst in this state you travel faster, jump higher and can pull off more demanding stunts and tricks. The second you fail a stunt you lose the fire and have to refill the bar before it happens again. Throughout the level you can also find power ups in the form of juice cartons that fill up your stunt bar. There are also a number of special power ups that enhance the attributes of your skater but these are usually in hard to reach places requiring you to pull off a sequence of stunts to get them.

Another intelligent feature and one that shows thought and empathy to gamers are the loading screens. As you complete levels, challenges and other such tasks new images will appear on your loading screens. OK I know nothing mind blowing but it does show that Z-Axis are aware of how boring looking at the same old load screens can be. One last feature and a homage to the bloke culture of testosterone fuelled stunt craziness that powers most extreme sports comes in the form of Chrissie one of the fictional characters to choose from when picking a skater. She comes dressed in a school girlish uniform very reminiscent of Britney Spears complete with mini miniskirt and tight top. The notable point is that she has a mature figure as certain parts of her move, bounce and wobble with very realistic physics that my research has led me to believe Z-Axis spent some time perfecting! The flashing of knickers when she jumps or performs flips is also notable eye candy.

One last feature that is always a welcome sight and one that deserves its own paragraph however brief is the level design. Very easy to use and giving many opportunities to create some fun and complex skating arenas, the level builder is almost as much fun as the main game. Of course the facility to build levels the size and like of those in the main game is not possible but you will be able to let your imagination run riot with the almost limitless possibilities.

Graphically this game is nothing groundbreaking but is still stunning with the frame rate never dropping below about fifty to sixty frames per second. The levels are big, bold and bright with clean and simple textures providing a vibrant richness and packed with so much that you can spend a great amount of time just looking at all the impressive sights. Animations of your skaters, the pedestrians and moving objects are all done with a good sense of realism. Reflections and other surface graphical effects look better than some I have seen in a long while on any console title of this generation. Visual effects are bold and stand out from all other on-screen graphics when they happen bringing the attention and emphasis that is duly required and nearly demanded by them. The only gripe I could have is of occasional clipping faults when skater, scenery and camera angle all get in the way of each other. Although not a big fault and a rare occurrence it can detract a little from the overall experience.

The soundtrack to this game is with a single doubt one of the best I have heard for any console game from any platform. A good mix of instrumental and lyrics, styles, moods and artists. Yes artists, it is a licensed soundtrack including groups such as Sublime, Student Rick, Boy Hits Car, Pharcyde, Reel Big Fish, The Vandals, Ataris, Black Sheep and Eric & Rakim. Some artists have provided more than one track so there is a good number of tracks to listen to although with the amount of time that can be spent in any one level expect to hear them repeat at least once or twice. This being said it is possible to pick and choose what you do and do not listen too in a menu screen that allows you to remove selected tracks from the play list at your leisure. Aside from the soundtrack you can expect to hear a good selection of different effects from the environment and your actions within them. Grinding is a good example, different surfaces naturally create different sounds and each sounds authentic and unique. The in-game dialogue is clear and humorous, relieving some of the tension that can build up when you fail a challenge for the umpteenth time.

The control deserves a big thumbs up as it is beyond simple in layout and use ensuring that even the biggest novice at this genre will be able to learn and enjoy the game with relative ease. For the seasoned veteran it might be a little too simple and limit the number of advanced tricks available but this is not a criticism. The simplicity and quick learning curve emphasises enjoying the game and creates a fun, arcade feel. Frustration is kept to a minimum although it will rise when repeated attempts at challenges go awry.

The gameplay is fun and very addictive mainly due to the nature of the challenges that are set. All are reachable by even the most inexperienced of gamers and can be completed after a little bit of practice. The levels are huge so you will never get bored as you can always just go and find somewhere new to explore and skate. The one moan that I would have about the game is it's over dependence on grinding. This trick will see your skater slide along an object such as a railing or other such like feature until either it runs out or you lose your balance. It is used so often and so many huge points can be racked up with combinational slides that other tricks become worthless. That one moan aside there is really no way I can explain just how enjoyable this game is to play other than to say you just have to play it and see, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Aggressive Inline is a great game and easily the best of the extreme sports genre that I have played. The few faults are so small and insignificant that they are not worth mentioning and rarely detract from the game experience. This is a game suitable for players of all ages, tastes and experience and more than worth asking price.

Reviewed by AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).