The weapons you use in the game are minimal and only mildly dangerous. With only nine different weapons to choose from, gamers will learn them quickly. The game gets the use of weapons right, but fails to offer enough variety or upgrades to them. Three of the weapons are projectiles to fire at other vehicles, magnets, cluster magnets, and rockets. Magnets and cluster magnets are virtually the same, and attach themselves to your enemy vehicles to throw off their balance and slow them down. The game allows you to fire forward with the right bumper and backward with the left, making combat possible even when leading the pack. Slightly more dangerous, though not by much, are the rockets. In the case of rockets, firing forward will inflict damage on your nearest competitor, but backwards will actually provide you a brief, sudden boost in speed.
The game also offers a few non-projectile weapons to annoy your fellow racers, smoke to try to trick your opponents off course and force blast to push them off course. The most interesting weapon also happens to be the most frustrating to use. Picking up a cable will allow you to slingshot yourself to pick up speed or clear a tough bend, or connect an enemy to the ground; or even better, another enemy. As cool as the weapon sounds, it is a bit frustrating to use and will take you the most time to master; typically leaving you tethered to the ground while other vehicles zip by.
The game gets much more exciting as the enemy cars begin getting smarter about how to use their own weapon pickups, making it a challenge to finish a race without exploding. Sadly, the enemy weapons are not the only hazard racers have to watch out for. The rocky terrain and sharp turns can wreck just as much havoc on your ride as a well-aimed rocket, making avoiding walls just as important as spinning off magnets. Poor drivers are in luck, due to the occasional game glitch will allow you to drop through the ground or coast through a large bolder unscathed.
The game boasts same console split-screen races as well as multiplayer racing over Live. Thankfully, the vast majority of the world appears to have sworn off Fatal Inertia at this point, making finding competitors as much fun and rewarding as watching paint dry. Searching for a race will typically result in a quick 'No matches found', while hosting your own will at least let you see what a blank race lobby looks like for five minutes, or as long as you can stand staring at the blank race roster.
Fatal Inertia is an exceedingly generic racer, with a lack of vehicles, races, and variety expected from a Live Arcade title. Speed right on by this one.
