I’ll start by saying that I have never played many (or any, if that) “extreme” sports games, that includes, but is not limited to, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and things of that ilk. That said, I believe Aggressive Inline is a very fine product.

I’ll begin with the graphics, which are very good. The character models are fairly detailed; some feature hair and clothes that move. The levels in which you skate are huge, some being about twice the normal level size for other extreme sports games. Framerate is spot on and never drops during single player, ever, and I tried to make it drop. Multiplayer shows some rate loss, but it’s hardly noticeable and is only present in certain instances. Effects like fire are nicely done and don’t look like cheap sprites.

Control is a little dodgy and unresponsive. Sometimes, in the middle of a trick stream, your character will just do a manual that was uncalled for. You have the option of changing control schemes, but full customization is not present. As it is, the basic controls are very well placed, especially the spin buttons with R and L for clockwise and counterclockwise, respectively. You might want to use the control pad for controlling tricks, because the analog doesn’t seem to compute diagonals at some times.

Sound is accurate as for the effects and speech. The skates make that rolling sound one would hear if the actual act of skating were taking place. The music is an edgy mix of today’s rock and rap to fill your ears with the street beat to make your elite feet pull discreet aerial treats. Artists on the game include groups like Sublime, Reel Big Fish, and others. Don't like the songs you hear? You can turn them off in the Sound Options menu and keep the ones you like.

The gameplay itself has a few things that mimic other extreme sports games, like objective-based levels, yet the sheer number of objectives is impressive: counting the hidden ones, there are 30+ objectives on each of the huge levels. This game sports a very interesting experience system. You gain attribute points not by buying them and such, but by earning them doing a trick. Grind a lot? Then your Grind skill will increase heavily. Of course, you have to land a trick for them to work. Although there does not appear to be a timer, the game’s "juice" system is actually a timer. You start each level with a certain amount of juice, and it will gradually decrease over time. To get more juice, you simply do tricks; the more tricks in a combo, the more juice you gain. Another way to increase juice is to collect juiceboxes strewn about the level. Run out of juice? Then it's Game Over for you. But you can continue for 100,000 of the points you have earned. Now this is only me talking, but that seems downright lenient. It is a cinch to get that many points. However, just because you can continue easily does not mean that the game is easy. Some of the challenges are difficult, especially the one in the Civic center, where you grind the hand of a clock. On the flipside, some of the challenges, even on the later, supposedly harder, levels are easily completed. As for secrets, there is a hidden character on each level of the game, plus various cheats.

All in all, this game has everything, but some problems do exist. There are some minor glitches that need tweaking, like when you find your skater standing sideways on something. Minor, yes, but it still could have been fixed. Multiplayer modes are creative, such as a form of skater blackjack and animal hunts throughout certain levels. Z-Axis has done a fine job in this game, and I rather enjoyed myself playing it.