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Fatal Inertia EX (PSN) By: Adam Waddilove This futuristic racer is certainly no F-Zero With an industry that cranks out racing games often, it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. Realistic racers like GRID, NFS and PGR are the ones that made a lasting impression. As far as space racers go, the only good one that springs to mind is the F-Zero series, GX itself was relentless but brilliant. When I reviewed Fatal Inertia on the 360, I found it to be incredibly flawed with its controls, its overall feel and the absence of anything innovative. How does EX compare to the original?  As you may know, Fatal Inertia EX is a Playstation Network downloadable title only and costs a fair bit for you to get. There have been some minor improvements to the game, such as the weapons and controls but the new additions of rumble and SIXAXIS support are hardly worth mentioning. The rumble only kicks in when you crash into a wall, or so it seems and the SIXAXIS support has you waving your controller around like a crazy person on drugs and the response in the game leaves a lot to be desired, leave it turned off.  There are a few extra races and modes in EX, but the game still maintains the original problems. Sure it handles a lot better, but the weapons lack any real punch when you unleash them on rivals, but they seem to do very well against you. There’s a matter of unfairness in this, one that frustrate and annoy. Online play is included, although it’s not much to write home about. That’s the main issue with EX, it makes minor improvements to a game that had quite average reviews in the hope of getting a mildly better score, not hoping to eclipse it with a bunch of new features and some much needed innovation.  Instead it tries to be a hybrid of F-Zero and Mario Kart but fails to deliver on both concepts, the weapons lack power and the game isn’t fast enough or crazy enough to even be close to F-Zero quality. However, the game looks impressive on the PS3 and while it’s not the greatest looking game, it certainly looks better than the 360 version, even if by a small margin. The music is fairly average, there’s nothing special about it. It would have been nice if the sound effects left an impact, but they didn’t either. The only thing that did is the visuals. The Verdict Having reviewed the original Fatal Inertia, I feel that not enough changes have been made for EX to be considered a good racer. Instead its only redeeming feature is that it handles slightly better, but the SIXAXIS and Rumble support is atrocious. Stick to F-Zero and Mario Kart. 
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