Move over Tony Hawk, you've got a worthy contender. Shame something of this quality got overlooked.
Controls are pretty much the same as Tony Hawk 4, square is grabs, circle is flips, triangle is grind, x is jump. The difference here (mainly) is of course being on inline skates instead of a skateboard, having an energy meter that needs some juice in it at all times (which isn't difficult to maintain really), having larger worlds with more to explore, having more original worlds, and having crazy obstacle set ups to mess around on. Another major thing is that you don't get skill points to just dump into a skill, but the more you do, say wall grinds, the better you get at it. The only way to get points in a skill is to practice it. You also don't have a timer in which you have to complete as many things as possible (like in Tony Hawk 3), you simply free roam and do what you will. As a result, the game feels free flowing, you can complete goals at your own pace (you can see goals through the menu), but it also isn't entirely clear how to complete every goal, which leaves some guess work. You can mostly figure out what to do, just not always how. Since the worlds are so original, they're often very fun to explore with lots of hidden areas and nooks everywhere and you'll almost always end up playing the game for longer than you expected.
Controls are great, your rider is responsive and you generally don't feel that the game is out to get you by not listening to your commands. Not to say that the game is easy, some of the challenges are incredibly difficult, it's one of the few games that I decided to just use cheat codes to unlock all the levels (it only unlocked them though, still let me do all the objectives), but the game is not a challenge due to poor controls. If anything, it can control better than its competitors sometimes and never worse.
Music selection can be lacking though...it's usually a hit or miss thing going on, you'll find a few songs in the short playlist likable then just turn off all the rest. Shame the list is so short, but it's nothing to put the game down over.
Graphics are...well, early PS2 graphics, but for its time, the worlds were incredibly rich and diverse. It didn't perhaps age too well, but there's also little complaint when you're grinding on the arms of a giant purple octopus ride with lights all along it for a goal, it's still pretty immersive.
Overall, back when this came out, i would've called it a cheap alternative, but this is 2009, you can get Tony Hawk 3, 4, or this for under $5. And overall, it does several things better than Tony Hawk ever did, I'd probably recommend this over even Tony Hawk (especially 3). If you're a Tony Hawk fan who somehow missed this, you should go back and correct your mistake. It's a shame this game was overlooked, because it's actually a real quality product.