Video game review: Fun 'Line Rider 2' turns online tool into game

Game title: "Line Rider 2: Unbound"

Platform: Nintendo DS

Studio: InXile

Rating: E for Everyone

Score: 6/10

THE REVIEW

Game play: "Line Rider" began its life as a free flash-based Web application — start with a little guy on a sled, draw him a track to ride on using a variety of different lines, and let momentum and physics do the rest. It wasn't really a game so much as an online, interactive sled-based sandbox; the best creators spent months dreaming up elaborate tracks, complete with gravity-defying loops and background drawings.

"Line Rider 2: Unbound" includes all the bells and whistles of the Internet toy — the freestyle mode is almost an exact reproduction — but adds in a couple of new modes to actually turn the tool into a game.

Story Mode sets your rider, a cute little fellow named Bosh with a red-and-white scarf, against rival Chaz fighting for the affections of sweetheart Bailey. Really, the "story" is just a loose framework of cartoon cutscenes that tie together puzzlelike stages, where the player has to figure out the perfect lines to draw in

predetermined zones to get Bosh to the end of the level. Get it right, and after Bosh flies down the track and lands safely at the end, you're treated to another small cartoon. These video clips are low-level slapstick of the Wile E. Coyote variety; if you're over the age of 8, you probably won't be amused.

Puzzle Mode allows players to create their own tracks, leaving gaps for others to try and solve the level, in the same way that players solve the preset puzzles in Story Mode. Given the DS's wireless Internet capabilities, this means that players can exchange tracks with people around the world, daring each other to beat their

levels. Some of the levels on Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection are so dense that it would

take a long while to even begin to solve them — a tall order for the young market the game seems to be aiming at. But there's an almost unlimited amount of depth here for those who are willing to master the difficult controls involved in creating

levels.