'Inline' impressive

Aggressive Inline
Rated: T for Teen
By: Acclaim
For: PlayStation 2 \"Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" changed the way video games were made. The game laid down the foundation for every extreme sports game that would be created for the next few years. There were all different types of games, which were sub-par compared to "Tony Hawk." These are basically just Tony Hawk on a BMX, Tony Hawk on a snowboard and Tony Hawk on a motorbike. Now with "Aggressive Inline," we have Tony Hawk on Inline Skates. But where the other games couldn\'t come close to the skateboarding masterpiece, "Inline" matches up to the excellence of "Pro Skater," and then leaves the rest skating in its dust. Similar to the other extreme sports games, you take one of the ten characters (with more later in the game), through nine huge levels flipping, grabbing and grinding. The previous "huge levels" comment is such an understatement, too. These levels have so much to do that just finding your way around will take hours. The levels are at least three times as large as any other game's stages, and once you find the hidden key the level opens up to even more added challenges. These stages, including an amazingly fun boardwalk carnival, a movie set and a museum, allow the skater to go anywhere and do anything. The levels are so huge that Acclaim did away with a time limit because the tasks, as hard as they are, would be impossible with a time limit. Whether it's doing a hand plant on a Ferris wheel and holding it for a full rotation, grinding across a tyrannosaurus's spine or doing a "Misty Flip" over a gap while a photographer snaps a picture, all the challenges will keep the gamer busy for weeks. Some of the challenges are trick related and half of them you get from talking to one of the pedestrians you run into. So a time limit will be in effect if you run into the "gangster-clown" that tells you to get 150,000 points in one minute or "[He'll] bust a cap in your ass." Many times a really good game will not have a lasting appeal, but with the incredible size of the levels, the multitude of challenges, the extra characters one can earn, the multiplayer and a timed-challenge option, this game will be in your system for months. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" might have started the trend, but "Aggressive Inline" is perfecting it.