Review
Games Without Boxes: New Downloads On PSN, WiiWare, and Xbox Live Arcade
June 30, 2008
By Scott Stein
Fatal Inertia EX
PlayStation Store (Koei)
Cost: $29.99
Japanese company Koei , normally known for its obsessive military history series Dynasty Warriors, has hit up the PSN with an updated version of their 2007 360 hover-racing game. No samurai here; in fact, it’s a combat-racing genre piece solidly lodged somewhere between Wipeout and Star Wars Episode 1 podracing. The vehicles control a little stiffly, though the semi-open-environment arenas afford kinetic cliff-hugging and water-skimming opportunities (until getting pulled back when you miss flying through a checkpoint, thus ending the buzz). Online matches and a fair number of single-player challenges and car upgrades are good reasons to try a download, and the graphics are better-than-average for a non-disc game—but there are only six worlds to race on, and the cost feels like it should really be ten dollars cheaper. Until Wipeout HD, this is the only game on the futuristic-racing block, and it’s not a bad one at that.
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