Rollerskating is the new skateboarding? Stop laughing. Now
Yep, it's like Tony Hawk's. If that's a problem, you may as well give up on extreme sports games. Triangle is grind from this point on, just as X is accelerate in racing games. Get over it. If you don't, you'll end up missing class titles like Aggressive Inline. And this is class. It makes you think rollerskating is cool and gives you enormous, gorgeous-looking levels to test out the theory. There's no time limit for you to race against to complete the Hawk's-style objectives: a trick meter slowly ticks down but as long as you keep topping it up with tricks, you can carry on indefinitely. On later levels, the meter falls faster. That's where your skillz come in.
roll up, Roll up
You can pole-spin like in AirBlade and pull Reverts to string tricks together like in Hawk's. It's possible to grind for ages which seems a little unrealistic, but whatever moves you favour translate into role-player-style levelling up of those skills. Each of the ten 'bladers moves slickly. The trick controls ape the ones in Tony Hawk's, but the timing is spot on - there isn't the clumsiness you usually find in Hawk's wannabes. Where Hawk still proves to be the master is in multiplayer. Even with the screen split, this game runs smoothly, but it doesn't have the innovation in the versus games to show it off. There's no Graffiti or Horse, just a few trick challenges and a game where you play pontoon by grabbing floating cards. It's like you're playing the main game head to head, rather than being offered something fresh. As for the solo game, seven levels and a tutorial might not seem like much, but it should keep you going for weeks.