Groan. I take a look at the theatrical trailer for Aeon Flux and fear the worst. I mean, I've only seen a few episodes of the MTV show it was based on, but it was stylish, daring, and absolutely stunning to look at. One look at the live-action film and I'm thinking that it's going to be something that strays the line of coolness without actually crossing it. But I'll save judgment for when I see it. Maybe I'll be a bit happily surprised, kinda like I was with the Aeon Flux video game, based on the film.

Flux is brought to us by the development team at Terminal Reality, who have had a track record of decent games made in the past. Here, they manage to capture the tone of the film and surround it with a few cool action scenarios that make it withstandable as you go through stage to stage, battling futuristic soldiers and rolling around with metallic balls, large and small. It probably won't be anything that's worth mention years from now as you look back on gaming's past, but, hey, at least it doesn't follow the rule of Acclaim-licensed movie games, where the credo is "suck as much as you possibly can".

In the game, you control Aeon through a number of scenarios as she wreaks havoc through a futuristic city, trying to turn the tide back in favor of the people instead of the one-sided government it's become. This involves a number of missions that strangely follow a storyline that bounces all over the place. This may confuse some who wonder why Aeon's fighting one side one minute, and then crosses over in an undercover role the next with very little explanation. I suppose fans of the series may get it over time, but those doing a normal playthrough may question her tactics.

This is a platforming game, plain and simple. There's mostly stages that involve navigation through a series of levels, some requiring you to run along walls and hop along poles with utmost precision, and there's others that involve the butt-kicking that only Aeon herself can deliver. Still, they play better than they deserve, with Aeon packing plenty of abilities that are easy to pull off. The introduction level, an odd stage that is kind of like a futuristic fashion show, introduces you to her array of dazzling moves.

Later on in the game, you're introduced to a series of metallic balls that come into play. Some are mere tennis-ball shaped spheres that you can roll into play to activate switches or put into position for crucial moving-ahead in a level. Others are enormous and allow Aeon to climb in and roll around, mounting herself into cannons and easily dashing over enemies, like a bowling ball does to a pin. It's the mixture of platforming and ball-rolling that helps Aeon stick out from the norm, and most of the moves are pulled off with ease. I just wish Terminal Reality did a little more with the gun-aiming system. Sometimes you can run out of ammo just trying to shoot down a series of enemies, putting yourself in a jam until you find some fresh bullets.