Joseph Young
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2001
- Messages
- 1,352
Jeezo, this is one heck of a fun game. Took me completely by surprise. Sort of a cross between THPS3 and (believe it or not) Jet Grind Radio.
Aggressive Inline, the new 'extreme sports' inline skating title from Z-Axis and Acclaim, is one of those titles I would ordinarily scoff at looking at the cover. There is way to much 'attitude' and flash on the box; it's really hard to make inline skating seem as exciting as skateboarding.
Inline skaters are to skateboarders what Viola players are to Violin players. They're just not taken seriously. That's not to say they have a point, but can a fun game be crafted from inline skating?
First off, the comparisons with THPS3 (and THPS2, to some extent) are merited. This game lifts a lot of ideas, but in Aggressive Inline, there is no standard 2:00 time limit. That means you can skate as long as you keep your gradually degrading 'juice meter' up by doing tricks. There is a set of goals at the start of each world, and other goals you open up by talking to random residents in each world. There are also timed challenges (get 60,000 points in one minute, for instance).
The worlds are HUGE. Massive. A couple times as large as the average THPS3 level. Grinding is the soul of the game, but you can also do vert tricks (complete with tweak), flips, spins, vaults (huge vaulted jumps over objects and ramps), manuals, 'revert'-esque cede slides. You can even swing around horizonal and vertical poles, and 'skitch' (grab onto the back of a car, bus, roachmobile, 4X4, etc -- did I mention there are a ton of cars driving around in this game?). There is so much interaction with the environment and so many opportunity for massive linked tricks. As long as you are performing tricks, you can keep playing. The absense of the requisite time limit makes such a huge difference.
Each huge world also has locked doors that lead to secret areas... the keys have to be found in other worlds.
The first world is a massive outdoor Los Angeles thoroughfare, complete with intersections, palm trees, hot dog stands, and the tollbooth/entrance to a huge movie studio. Inside there is a haunted house movie in production, and the massive interior has bluescreen hanging all over the place, the facade of a haunted house (you need a key to get in though), a graveyard, bridges, a canyon, tons and tons of ramps. As you can see, this game is about exploration, but I have really started stringing my tricks together and the revert/manual linkage from THPS3 is present here, done the same way.
There is a little bit of cursing in the game, and although most of the music is typical pop/punk shite, some of it is -- get ready - actually pretty good.
The female skaters come complete with bouncing breast physics and schoolgirl skirts that fly up as you skate
. In other words, this game is marketed to the young male teen audience (as with most 'Xtreme sports' titles). But aside from that, there is a deep, immersive gameplay experience to be found here, complete with humor, an epic scale, and total replayability.
Joseph
Aggressive Inline, the new 'extreme sports' inline skating title from Z-Axis and Acclaim, is one of those titles I would ordinarily scoff at looking at the cover. There is way to much 'attitude' and flash on the box; it's really hard to make inline skating seem as exciting as skateboarding.
Inline skaters are to skateboarders what Viola players are to Violin players. They're just not taken seriously. That's not to say they have a point, but can a fun game be crafted from inline skating?
First off, the comparisons with THPS3 (and THPS2, to some extent) are merited. This game lifts a lot of ideas, but in Aggressive Inline, there is no standard 2:00 time limit. That means you can skate as long as you keep your gradually degrading 'juice meter' up by doing tricks. There is a set of goals at the start of each world, and other goals you open up by talking to random residents in each world. There are also timed challenges (get 60,000 points in one minute, for instance).
The worlds are HUGE. Massive. A couple times as large as the average THPS3 level. Grinding is the soul of the game, but you can also do vert tricks (complete with tweak), flips, spins, vaults (huge vaulted jumps over objects and ramps), manuals, 'revert'-esque cede slides. You can even swing around horizonal and vertical poles, and 'skitch' (grab onto the back of a car, bus, roachmobile, 4X4, etc -- did I mention there are a ton of cars driving around in this game?). There is so much interaction with the environment and so many opportunity for massive linked tricks. As long as you are performing tricks, you can keep playing. The absense of the requisite time limit makes such a huge difference.
Each huge world also has locked doors that lead to secret areas... the keys have to be found in other worlds.
The first world is a massive outdoor Los Angeles thoroughfare, complete with intersections, palm trees, hot dog stands, and the tollbooth/entrance to a huge movie studio. Inside there is a haunted house movie in production, and the massive interior has bluescreen hanging all over the place, the facade of a haunted house (you need a key to get in though), a graveyard, bridges, a canyon, tons and tons of ramps. As you can see, this game is about exploration, but I have really started stringing my tricks together and the revert/manual linkage from THPS3 is present here, done the same way.
There is a little bit of cursing in the game, and although most of the music is typical pop/punk shite, some of it is -- get ready - actually pretty good.
The female skaters come complete with bouncing breast physics and schoolgirl skirts that fly up as you skate
. In other words, this game is marketed to the young male teen audience (as with most 'Xtreme sports' titles). But aside from that, there is a deep, immersive gameplay experience to be found here, complete with humor, an epic scale, and total replayability.
Joseph
