Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood is the sequel to last years out-of-the box street fighting game, Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This at Home. And once again it looks like Paradox Development has outdone itself.

This go-around, the models are cleaner and have even more details -- which is good since you have the ability to add a lot of details to your custom fighters. The Create-a-Fighter feature (which is much easier to digest than in the previous game) gives you the opportunity to not only change between six body types, three face types, and a ton of hair and outfit looks -- but you can now create custom logos and tattoos to place on your character, which look fine while in battle from a distance but become pixilated in the victory poses when you are close up. But more on the Custom Fighter Mode later.

Not only are the models bumped up, but so are the environments. In BYW2, you’re able to brawl in up to a dozen different locations ranging from the Backyard (duh) to the Mini Golf course, an Office, a Junkyard, and other locations that will give you plenty of opportunities to bash your opponent with different types of weapons.

Like its predecessor, There Goes the Neighborhood’s musical mix contains bands from the rougher side of the musical-spectrum. This games soundtrack includes Insane Clown Posse, Gwar, Biohazard, Stamping Ground, Murphy’s Law, and dozens more.

Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood has three major modes that will take up most of your time. These modes are Career Mode, Exhibition Mode, and the Custom Wrestler feature.

Exhibition Mode is the one-battle vs. mode seen in other games. Here you choose the characters that you want to fight with/against (including your custom fighters), then choose one of the unlocked arenas, and finally, you brawl. This is the mode to use if you want to go up against a friend or it you want to practice some of the various moves that are available.

Career Mode is the beef of BYW2. This replaces the last game’s Talk Show Mode. Here you will attempt to work your way through three tiers of Battle. Each tier represents a different Backyard Wrestling federation. In order to complete a tier, you must win a tournament and claim the belt (and continue to defend the title as well). To qualify for belt-tournaments, you must complete missions. There are five missions in each federation -- once completed, that tier’s tourney is unlocked.

The Custom Fighter Mode is a lot like the last game’s where you get to customize a character to fit your needs. There are six different body types available -- ranging from the athletic male look to the overweight male to the muscular female. I’m not sure if there are any changes in your character’s stats based on the model you choose. I would think that the overweight model would have more power and less speed, but I couldn’t really tell a difference when I was experimenting with the different types. Along with the shape of the body, you can change the fighter’s skin tone. There are nearly 20 different tones to apply to your model. You can make the fighter everything from a pale Caucasian to a deep chocolate (and most everything in between), but that’s not all. You can also turn him/her various shades of blue, red, and purple -- or if you are going for some really odd looks, pitch-black.

The faces, hair, and outfits that are available also help to widen this mode’s choices. The clothing is divided up into three sections: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Footwear. After these selections, you can customize your character’s moves; finally, the big addition to this mode -- the Custom Logo system.

A logo is made up of a series of (up to eight) tattoo’s positioned on the body, and you can have at most nine logos. When designing a logo, you must choose a tattoo shape (there are 128 different shapes to use). You can place the tattoo on the face or body, then adjust its position on that area however you want. You can also adjust the tat’s width, height, angle, and color. For instance, you can have a tattoo over your character’s eye that spreads across most of her face, while also having a large biohazard symbol on her stomach and a sun on her left breast. Even though you have a limited number of tattoos per logo, you are given enough freedom to make the character’s symbol look however you want.

Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood’s Career Mode has a nice difficulty gradient. The further along you go, the harder it gets. Typically the missions leading up to title matches are easy, but once you get into the arena for a belt, you are in for a major fight. If you find yourself getting beaten down a lot, then maybe it’s time for a change of strategy.

The control scheme of Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood is simple and easy to pick up, and when you’re playing it, the sensitive attacks/defenses/moves make it really easy to perform cool-looking deadly combos. This, in itself, is always a good combination.

You have two basic attacks that you perform with the Square and X buttons. You grapple with the Circle button and pick up weapons by pressing Triangle. When the opponent is on the ground, you can either pin him/her with the L1 button, or use your Ground Submission move by pressing the R1 and Circle buttons at the same time. You can also perform two different ground attacks with the X and Square buttons (just like if they were standing up). But what all these attacks actually are and look like depends on your arena and your position relative to your opponent.

There Goes the Neighborhood is a solid street-fighter that builds on the good points of its predecessor, although it still has a few of its flaws as well. Anyone who found the first game enjoyable should definitely get this one -- and if you didn’t, give BYW2 a try. It may surprise you.