The game delivers a great experience for a hovercraft racer, but make one single mistake, and you're finished.
User Rating: 8 | Fatal Inertia X360
The game, while being pretty unoriginal, is one of the only one of its kind available for the Xbox 360, being a futuristic hover racer. There is about 20 minutes at the start of tutorial introducing pretty much every aspect of the game, and it does this really well, giving tips all the way. There are 4 classes of hover craft. The basic one is really slow but has great control and traction (on air...). The second is a more slender, and appropriately faster craft, however is a bit floaty in controls. The next is just a more extreme version, however with lower acceleration. The 4th is a huge freight-type craft that is good at pushing other crafts off course. These crafts all have many, many upgrades that can be obtained through completing the various series of professional and elite levels. Each series has 4 races, and all must be completed in a row, which will give you you're final position. This brings me to pretty much my only gripe with this game: its punishing need to have a flawless race. If using one of the floatier class crafts, and you were to bump or even graze an icicle or tree, the craft will go spinning out of control and you will need to reset it, from a standstill. By this time, usually all of the other crafts have managed to pass you, and this is quite frustrating if you are in first, and nearing the end make a slight turning error and end up in 8th.
That being said, the game is really immersive in that its constant need to avoid obstacles and many different boosts, allows for some very tight turns and near-misses, that you feel relief after passing, because you have learned from experience what that miss would have cost you.
This game is a good package for a mere $15 or so in a bargain bin or at a Gamestop if you want to pick it up used. If nothing else, get this game for the multiplayer because it will surely give you some amusement if you have young friends or family who don't look highly upon playing Halo 3 with you.
