Aggressive Inline (video game)

, to earn points and maintain the Juice Meter. Aggressive inline is an extreme sports game that simulates aggressive inline skating, in which the player navigates a series of levels to perform tricks, score points, and complete various objectives. Controls involve the use of the D-pad to move and buttons to jump and perform tricks, including grabs, flips, grinds, wallrides and manuals. The player can also interact with environmental elements, such as vaulting from rails, grabbing and spinning around poles, skitching on the back of moving vehicles, and bailing out of tricks. In the game's "Career" mode, the player completes a series of seven levels and progresses by completing challenges issued by characters in the level. Challenges include the performance of tricks in certain areas or on certain objects, or accumulating points for tricks within a time limit. Completion of challenges assigns points to the player, and reaching a threshold of points enables progress to the next level. Levels also contain several hidden collectables, allowing the player to unlock hidden areas to other levels, increase their attributes, or unlock special tricks. Aggressive Inline features several mechanics, including a "Juice Meter" system in place of a fixed time limit. When the meter is depleted automatically over time, the player runs out of energy and the game is over. The player can replenish the meter by performing tricks or collecting juice boxes throughout the level, allowing them to continue playing indefinitely. An attribute system allows the player to increase the effectiveness of their skater by using experience gained from completing challenges and performing actions and tricks of that attribute in levels. Increasing attributes allows the player to improve the performance of speed, jumps, spins, grinds, manuals, fakies, and wallrides. The Game Boy Advance version of Aggressive Inline features several differences from the console version. Whilst the player similarly completes challenges across a series of thirteen levels, levels are time-limited, with challenges consisting of objectives including collecting or destroying items, jumping through hoops, and meeting the high score for the stage by accumulating trick points. == Development ==

Aggressive Inline was developed by Z-Axis, a California-based studio founded by Dave Luntz, responsible for several sports titles including the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX series and Thrasher Presents Skate and Destroy. The game was developed by a team of 25 staff, with publisher Acclaim Entertainment briefing the studio to develop an action sports game based on aggressive inline skating by May 2002. renamed to AKA Acclaim before release. During development, the company agreed to acquisition by ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'' series publisher Activision. Project manager Randy Condon noted that the developers struggled to fit to the "tight schedule" provided by the publisher due to the "ambitious" scope of the game's design. The development team's experience working on Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 allowed them to expedite development by using the game's engine, tools, and animation system. Several features, including competition stages and receiving bonus points for clearing gaps, were removed due to time constraints. Condon stated that the team "underestimated the work required" for "overwhelming" design tasks, including the "time required to perfect level geometry" and the design and implementation of individual challenges, leading to the simplification and elimination of many challenges in the game. Condon stated the design objectives of Aggressive Inline were to combine the features of the ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of games based upon the engine used to create Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2. The developers experimented with the addition of several innovations novel to the genre at the time, including a skill progression system inspired by role-playing games, and the removal of a fixed time limit in stages to "let players do things at their own pace". The developers also aimed to convey a "strong sense of humor and fun" in the game, designing levels with challenges that would allow players to "unleash havoc" and "alter the world" to expose additional ramps or rails. Announced as Chris Edwards Aggressive Inline, the game features several professional inline skaters, including Chris Edwards, Eito Yasutoko, Franky Morales, Jaren Grob and Taïg Khris. To animate the movement of the skaters and performance of tricks, the developers used motion capture recordings of skaters at Woodward Camp. Full Fat were an independent development team that had previously worked on a Game Boy Advance port for Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2''. ==Reception==

Aggressive Inline received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic on all platforms, with several critics praising the game as a strong competitor to the ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series in the extreme sports genre. GameSpot'' nominated the game as the "Game of the Month" in May 2002 and the "Best Alternative Sports Game" across console platforms for 2002. Retrospective reception Retrospective assessments of Aggressive Inline have remained positive. Several critics have remarked that the game introduced several innovations that predated the features of titles in the ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. In 2006, Edge noted that Aggressive Inline preceded features used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, including the introduction of career stages without a time limit. Similarly in 2002, the IGN review of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 noted Aggressive Inline offered a "serious challenge" to Neversoft, using it as a point of comparison for several of the new features in the game. Describing the game as a "true breakthrough competitor" to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series in 2009, Official PlayStation Magazine praised Aggressive Inline'' as "addictive" and a "unique, innovative and remarkably fun sports game", highlighting the game's "huge" and "cleverly crafted" stages. In 2019, Eurogamer praised Aggressive Inline as "completely innovative and awesome thanks to its huge playing areas". However, several retrospective articles noted the game was not a commercial success. Categorizing the game as a "flop" in 2004, GMR noted that "while the press loved Aggressive Inline, nobody bought it." Similarly in 2011, Edge classified the game as a "forgotten" title, noting that the game's failure was "quickly overshadowed by the miserably attention-seeking BMX XXX" and because "inline skates never attained the same kind of cultural cachet at skateboards". ==References==