With the LFO come inevitable fights, but it gave us a chance to tool around in the flighty little mecha. While in the ground-based stages, Sumner can shift from a speedy but slightly clunky vehicle to a full-on humanoid air surfing mega-fighter. It was probably a side effect of not having picked up the nuances of the first game's combat system (though there is a fairly decent Tutorial Mode accessible from the main menu), but for the most part we just busted into robo-mode (complete with faux Transformers transformation sounds that we happily supplied), and ran up to thump on the other guys. Shots from our cannon would stun or knock down our enemies, and by holding the melee attack button a boomerang-like shot could be set out, but it was more fun to just charge up and start a-punchin'.

When things moved into the air, though, it was a little different. All those tricks we learned in the Tutorial Mode and the very first Lifting tourney came in handy, since they were used to power-up the special meter that allow us to kick off the Rider's High, a slo-mo effect that also allowed us to pull off some otherwise impossibly acrobatic moves. In fact, if the enemy LFOs tried to bust out said slo-mo moves, we could also get High and then expend our High to cancel out what would otherwise be an unblockable combo. Using a basic lock-on system and a simple flick of the right analog stick, we could bide our time and then sail in from the back while keeping the camera on the other guy. Interesting stuff.

Interesting, mind, once we got used to the controls, which were a little sluggish and imprecise, but again, we'll chalk that up to our limited time with the series thus far. The on-foot stuff seemed weakest, but at least we could use the game's fairly complex upgrades and items systems to get a weapon strong enough to take down one of the towering LFOs while on foot. Having all those story chunks thrown in to carry things made it obvious that this is a game aimed at ES fans and since we weren't, we were left with a little head-scratching.

Hopefully more time with the final game will clear things up a little, but if nothing else, it seems the tone (if not the actual art style and characters) from the TV series has been replicated here for maximum crossover potential. Should we suddenly come across some new revelation with subsequent play-throughs, we'll make sure to update you.