Nothing can replace watching the boys from Jackass get up to their antics, but Jackass: The Game gives show-junkies a chance to be armchair Steve-O's without dislocating a testicle. Jackass: The Game has some great graphics with characters that bear an uncanny resemblance to their real counterparts. The setting for each stunt is sometimes over-the-top, but in every case there's a high level of detail on screen and enough variety between segments that you are never bored. Outfits for characters that you unlock help add more variety and you'll unlock characters as you play through. The game of a TV show needs to reflect the real thing and the developers did a nice job of featuring the action with very little superfluous stuff on the screen. The most frequent indicator that pops up will appear as you are taking damage to flash a little x-ray view of the body part you just demolished. I love that.

The soundtrack selection is loaded and has some great bands like Circle Jerks and Nashville Pussy that really embody the Jackass spirit in both sound and lifestyle. Turbonegro contributes a few tracks plus a smattering of bands that put in rockin' performances for the game. There are some incidental sound effects that help drive each stunt home, but nothing can make the game as visceral as watching the show. Through some cut scenes done with the game's engine and voiceover from the Jackass lads, you get a feel for the show but it would have been nice to see real clips more often and have live action incorporated. The suspension of disbelief is improved by having most of the action handled with the computer graphics, but there is no substitute for video.

Thank God the developers of Jackass: The Game didn't go for some lame conversion to a traditional format like Jackass: The Game kart-racing or Jackass: The Game FPS... Stranger things have happened, dude! [cough]Kiss Pinball[cough] We never take for granted that our favorite characters won't be butchered and/or abominated in the transition to a game. Luckily the format chosen for Jackass: The Game is just a smaller version of the show. Instead of just watching the action, you get to take part. Ostensibly you are behind the camera, but the controls for each stunt are all you. You'll follow the guys through seven stunt sets and be required to document specific things before moving from set to set. This is mostly a ticket-punch, although there are some fairly difficult stunts in the game. The outcome is that you'll rack up points and have some raw material to edit down and share with your friends.

So the online piece of Jackass: The Game is great. It's split between what you would expect after playing the offline version; you can challenge a group to play one of the stunt variations from the game. Most competitions are about placement or points and you'll have a great time in these competitions whether you win or lose. Matchups are handled in a similar fashion to most online game lobbies where you'll wait until the party is filled and then take off. There weren't as many people crowding the online space but they've been up there at some point, judging from all the content they left. After you record yourself pulling off some stupid stuff, you can save the replay and upload it to the Jackass: The Game site for other players to download and rate. Too bad there isn't an option to watch the replay online because downloading and then going back online to rate the download is pretty lame. The delay to do all that is silly - if the PSP can't crack online video a la YouTube, they've got problems. Nobody wants to sit around waiting for a download then watch the download then go back online to rate it. Maybe a few times, but nobody has that much patience for very long. Especially when you consider that people are uploading shows that are stitched-together stunts and may last a while, the download cycle is a bit of a downer. Pulling down custom content is cool in general and it will be great if the site is updated with new content as promised.

The stunts in Jackass: The Game fall into a few categories. Many are segments like riding something or traveling down a set route. In these segments, you have to do certain things to earn points. An example would be bailing out of a golf cart into a building... Sounds fun, right? If you perform this action during the golf-cart stunt you get to check off one box. Medals are awarded according to how many of the actions you checked off and you can't proceed without performing a minimum number of actions. Since you can keep each benchmark you earn, it is fairly easy to replay these segments until you get it right. Not always the most exciting thing to do if you get stuck in one area, but a necessary evil. You can imagine that some actions are nearly impossible and require practice. The other types of segments involve one particular challenge and may ask you to hit buttons in sequence, in rhythm, or just steer one of the players into a hazardous situation. There is enough comedy in the game that it is impossible to take yourself seriously playing it. That doesn't mean there are frustrations but Jackass: The Game never takes itself seriously enough for you to think you've got something to prove. And if it gets too easy, you can dial up the level of challenge through a special mode, appropriately called Challenge Mode.

Most actions performed during a stunt are equivalent to a mini-game, where you've got simple controls that are given to you at the beginning of the stunt. Reacting quickly to nail the stunt or learning how to manage the controls during the stunt is just part of the fun. At any point if you blow up the stunt, you'll be able to start again automatically. You can switch out your Jackass of choice at any point in the game and there's autosave so you don't have to worry about that. The editing tools are quite a bit more complex than the game controls. To edit you'll have to be prepared to learn about taking a sequence and splicing it somewhere else to create the Jackass equivalent of a home movie. Once you get the hang of the editing, it is pretty intuitive but there is an initial learning curve. There are options to use what's called Director Mode to customize sequences by introducing different camera angles and adjusting the way the shot looks to add slow-mo and other effects. Watching user-uploaded content will help teach you the options available through Director Mode and the editor. There's a silly mode that lets you control one of the Jackass guys as if he were sitting in a room doing what you told him to do (happy, sad, confused, etc.). You can save these for later or upload them but I'm wondering how the quality of uploads will be managed or decided. Even after the game had been out a short time there were lots of shows posted to the site.

Multiplayer is easy to get into and features the option to join a stunt or segment or host the same. It's great to play online and also play Ad Hoc. It's too bad there isn't any kind of game sharing and it's also a shame that some type of stunt editor didn't make an appearance. The ability to create or modify a stunt and upload it for others to play would truly make this an amazing game. Instead, we see people using machinima from other titles to simulate a Jackass experience. This version is fun and will make a great party game or weekend distraction but it's over quickly and is only interesting until you've played all the stunts. A stunt editor should be included in the next release and maybe we could use a bit more story. The idea of following around these guys is great and I love how the game contains some editing and directing pieces that are true to the role you're supposed to be playing in the game. Now what we need is easier editing and the option to make up stunts and share with friends. In the meantime, enjoy yourself out there and try not to break a leg...