Publisher: Crave Entertainment, www.cravegames.com
Ages: five and up
Parental Advisory: None
Sometimes, you can buy an entertaining program at a reasonable price. And at other times, you can pay little for a program and get exactly what you pay for. At $9.95, Crave Entertainment's X-Bladez: In-line Skater initially sounds like a bargain. After all, how bad can a game be? But the game is so poor, you'll want to save your money for something else that is worth playing.
As the name implies, X-Bladez: In-line Skater is a skating simulation that is designed to let you trick, grind, and stunt your way through the game's levels. Here the game offers various 3D worlds that include single heat slalom racetracks, 2 circuit racetracks, and more, and lets you perform a variety of tricks that include back flips, flat spins, bio 540's, heel grabs, and more-some 24 tricks that they're free to combine.
As you would expect, the more daring the stunts during play, the more points that you are awarded. And these points eventually unlock new levels. The game also lets you grind ledges, jump trash cans, catch max-air, and more, and collect tokens that unlock new characters.
Unfortunately, the controls are clumsy and unresponsive, which limits one's ability to perform tricks, and the game is generally a turn off. Since we're fans of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, we thought that perhaps we were just finding it difficult to adapt to a new game. But after putting in considerable time to learn X-Bladez and give it a chance, we can only conclude that this is a second rate game.
Another downside, when compared to the latest, cutting-edge graphics that one expects to see in the latest PlayStation 2 games, X-Bladez is a PlayStation game that features only adequate graphics. Those of you with PlayStation 2 consoles will not want to make this step backwards.
At $9.95, X-Bladez: Iin-line Skater is available at a reasonable price. However, a game that you won't want to play is no bargain.
