Sound:  
The sound in AI is a decent mix of hard rocking tunes. It’s typical of the newer extreme sports games, but holds its own nonetheless. Some of the featured artists include: Hoobastank, Saliva, P.O.D., Reel Big Fish and Sublime. There are others included, and the mix is one that most people who would enjoy an inline skating game would like. (Aren’t generalizations fun?)

The effects during play are simple but effective. You’ll hear the rolling of your skate wheels, the crashing of your head against the ground when you bail on a landing, all the stuff you’d expect. The citizens in the areas will occasionally comment to you when you pass by/over them as well, which makes the sense of realism a little bit greater. The entire package is done well enough to not seem lacking, and that is as great as I could ask for it to be.

Gameplay:  
Gameplay is definitely what makes or breaks this style of game, and AI offers some of the best, most immersive extreme sports goodness I have even laid hands upon. The bulk of it lies within the career mode, which goes without saying, since that is easily the case in any game in this vein that is worth its salt.

The career mode is in essence the same as you’d find in most extreme sports games. You start out on one level, with a set of objectives laid before you, which you are meant to accomplish. Prior to the Tony Hawk series, I wasn’t aware that extreme athletes were dispatched, much like government operatives, to complete missions in various parts of the world, but evidently, it is common knowledge and I am the idiot for not knowing so. Go figure. Each of these goals has a point value assigned to it, and when you complete it, you get those points, and with a certain number of points, you’ll open up the next level, or earn new pieces to use to create your own skating area in the Park Editor mode. Aside from the goals that appear when you first start a board, there are also people, or machine/speaker/non-human type devices (in the movie set, there are some heads in jars that will tell you things) that will dispatch new missions to you throughout the level. Each level also has a few hidden objectives for you to try to find as you go.

The goals can vary from getting a certain number of points in a time limit, to accumulating a total of points throughout the board regardless of time, to doing a certain trick over a certain gap so a photographer can take your picture. Most of them will not seem incredibly repetitive to you, and some can be downright mind-boggling when you first think of them. You will get some goals where you will say to yourself, “How the f%&* am I supposed to get up there, let alone grind that specific rail with a specific grind?” Well, after some time in a level you will find a rope here or a ledge there that will lead you up to that point, and you really can feel a sense of accomplishment for figuring some of them out. The levels are very well designed, and you won’t have a shortage of objects to trick off of at any point, so you’ll never be lacking for action. To add to the depth of the game, each level also has an area that starts out locked. Each level has a key hidden in it for another level, and when you open up the hidden area for each level, it adds even more skating area for each of the already gi-normous (not a real word, but aptly describes them, I feel.) levels.

There isn’t a time limit in any of the areas, but the length of your run is dictated by your “Juice Meter”. This is a bar on the screen that fills when you do tricks, and slowly decreases when you idly roam around a level. It will take a hit if you happen to bail on a trick, and if it runs out completely, you will need to trade in some points to continue. (About 100,000 to be exact.) It definitely makes for some flexibility in what you want to do on a run, since once you get accustomed to the style of play, you’ll more than likely be able to keep your runs going indefinitely. This is nice compared to the former style of Tony Hawk, where you would have to do the same kind of run over and over again if you fell short due to the time limit. It never seemed like a problem at the time for the Tony Hawk series, but now that I have been shown a superior alternative, I don’t want it any other way. (Side note: Tony Hawk is going to this same style of play this year, so I WON’T have to have it any other way.)

Aggressive Inline brings a ton to the table in terms of gameplay, and in yet another aspect, it has set a new standard for my expectations. The smooth play of the game is only magnified when it is presented within huge, gorgeous levels. The goals that AI throws out for you to accomplish cover a wide range of difficulties, and some of the high score requirements for certain missions will make the player play the game for a good chunk of time, which is definitely a plus in my book, because it will act as a motivation to play the game and actually get good at it. The whole package is superb, and if future offerings in the Aggressive Inline series improve on what the first one gave me, I will retain this as my new favorite extreme sports franchise.

Control:
There are a few aspects of the tight control scheme that are very innovative, but for the most part, it stays close to the tried and true extreme sports control formula to keep those familiar with it comfortable. The A button is used to crouch/go fast and when released, will allow you to jump. The Y button is for grinding on rails, ledges, etc… L and R are used to rotate while in the air, and the Z button is used for a cess slide, which is the same as the revert move in Tony Hawk, allowing you to continue combos out of vert tricks. You can also look around the area by using the C stick. The trick system is basically the same, but with a few differences.

The B button is used in conjunction with the control stick to do tricks. Whether you do grabs or flip type tricks, it is all done with the B button and various control stick movements, which is a departure from the two different trick buttons used in Tony Hawk, which is the standard control scheme for extreme sports games. By having all the tricks on B, it frees up the X button to be used as an “action” button. When you hold this button down and pass over a low object, you can vault (flip) over it, and maybe start out a combo that way, or do so in the middle of a combo. The X button can also be used if you pass by a vertical or horizontal pole to flip/swing around them. This can let you change direction, or swing up to higher spots, depending on what kind of pole you use, and can allow you to access areas in levels that can’t really be reached any other way. X is also used to get missions from bystanders/machines that have a red balloon near them, which lets you know that they have a mission for you to do. The last main function for X is to “bail” out of a trick. This is for when you happen to go off a vert ramp and may end up landing on a surface that isn’t technically on the same plane as you will be, this pops you back to an upright position so that you will land flat and avoid bailing. It’s a nice addition to prevent landings that in previous games would have been unavoidable crashes.

The controls are pretty much standard fare, but are very tight. The new additions can take a little while to get used to, but the tutorial mode in the game will walk you through everything very well, and should have almost anyone up and running with the best of them in no time. Veterans of extreme sports games will have no problem picking it up and having at it, though, barring a slight adjustment to the action button. Overall, a very good control package.

Multiplayer:
There are a few different multiplayer modes in the game. There is a standard high points competition, which is a fixed time limit, and the winner is the one with the most points at the end. Best trick is a competition to see who can do the, you guessed it, best trick. (duh) Egg Hunt has the players searching for hidden objects in the levels, Twenty One has players looking for cards on the levels, and whoever is the closest to 21 without going over at the end wins, and Animal Rescue has the players rescuing animals throughout the levels. As you can tell, some of these are typical modes, and others are definitely a new type of competition, but all of them serve as entertaining ways for you to beat on your friends and family head to head while talking a little trash. Always a good time.

OVERALL:
As I’ve stated previously, I expected little from this game except for it to be Tony Hawk on rollerblades. Now, it pretty much IS Tony Hawk on rollerblades, but it is an incredibly well done Tony Hawk on rollerblades. Everything from the graphics, to the sound, to the control scheme is pieced together brilliantly, and definitely exceeded every single expectation I had for it. If BMX “XXX,” made by the same developers, can play as well as this game, I would love it, regardless of the retarded “comedy” (and I use the term very loosely) that will be in it. Aggressive Inline is definitely a contender for my “Favorite Extreme Sports Game of the Year” Award, (Ceremonies to be held in my living room on December 28th. Call your local Ticketmaster outlet for availability of seats.) though it’s biggest competition will arrive later this month, in the form of Tony Hawk 4. However, I think that Tony Hawk will have to have made a lot of improvements in its series to keep up with AI, so it won’t be a shoo-in to win the top place in my heart again. If you love extreme sports games, I can definitely recommend Aggressive Inline as a must-buy, and even if you aren’t a huge fan of them, this may still be a good candidate for a rental. It may just win you over. I know it won me over in a big way.

 

The Lowdown on  Aggressive Inline Aesthetics: Awesome Control: Awesome Gameplay: Awesome Multiplayer: Very Good Sound: Very Good Innovation: 5/6 Lasting Appeal: 6/6 Overall: Awesome! "Top of the Genre"