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IGN Review of Jackass: The Game
In late 2007, Red Mile Entertainment and game development studio Sidhe Interactive produced a PlayStation 2 and a PlayStation Portable rendition of the MTV "stupid stunt" phenomenon, Jackass. And apparently, it didn't turn out all that terrible according to the reviewer of that version. However, the Nintendo DS game, produced by Sensory Sweep Studios, is not that game. It's a completely different design and is surprisingly ambitious for what it is, but man…it's bad.
Sensory Sweep's design can best be described as a Tony Hawk game where you do dumb things: ride a wagon downhill, slingshot yourself out of a hammock, ride an ostrich, bareback a pig, fling yourself off an airplane propeller. It's an openworld design with tasks that must be accomplished, each one dished out by comic book representations of the television personalities; no photos or voice samples were provided, so you'll have to figure out who's who by their stylized designs. And just like Tony Hawk, you'll score more points and hit higher achievements if you pull off moves while attempting the stunts – striking a pose and doing handstands beef up the multiplier and will make the difference between earning a dog poop medal and a gold trophy.
Conceptually the game goes in a cool direction. You've got huge open worlds in a 3D environment. You've got ragdoll physics that cause your on-screen persona to flail his limbs when he goes unconscious after a particularly nasty fall. You even get a couple of mini-games like Dodgeball outside of the main progression. Yes, conceptually it shows promise. Shame the entire production's dogged by sloppy programming and a development team going far beyond its and the system's capabilities.
Sure, you can run anywhere in these 3D Jackass worlds, but when controls are incredibly spotty and rigid it isn't any fun to stray beyond the normal game structure. Half the reason players skirt off the established path in sandbox-style games is because the games make it a blast to do so, but in Jackass you're fighting the controls so much that you just want to get the horror over with. The designers try to encourage the exploration by scattering icons that'll unlock costumes and other treats, but the collision detection is so terrible in this game that you'll many times pass through the icons instead of snagging them. And when some icons can only be grabbed by going airborne, it's a pain in the ass (I can say that since the title of the game also incorporates it) to accomplish these tasks since you have to be pinpoint precise in tagging them. Pair the shoddy collision detection with the stiff controls and you've got yourself a nightmare of a DS product.
The game also runs into the same problem that Activision's Transformers DS game had: open worlds aren't the Nintendo DS hardware's forte…especially when you can fly high into the air. When you go airborne and look down on your 3D world, all the little flaws and compromises of your engine tend to stand out. Watch in amazement as 3D models vanish in the distance, or fade into view as you float closer to them. And then you get the other unforeseen and unanticipated side-effects like bugs where you'll fall through the world. That happens more than a couple of times in Jackass on the DS.
Even the extra games – really, the only part of the product that utilizes the unique capabilities of the Nintendo DS – are terrible. Take the dodgeball mini-game, for example – an entirely 2D engine that has even worse controls and collision detection than the main 3D game. Last year's EA Playground has a better version of Dodgeball, and it's one of about a dozen different modes.
The only truly good element to come out of Jackass is the revelation that the Nintendo DS has the ability to do rudimentary ragdoll physics. Now let's employ that tech in a game that's actually fun to play.
©2008-01-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Sensory Sweep's design can best be described as a Tony Hawk game where you do dumb things: ride a wagon downhill, slingshot yourself out of a hammock, ride an ostrich, bareback a pig, fling yourself off an airplane propeller. It's an openworld design with tasks that must be accomplished, each one dished out by comic book representations of the television personalities; no photos or voice samples were provided, so you'll have to figure out who's who by their stylized designs. And just like Tony Hawk, you'll score more points and hit higher achievements if you pull off moves while attempting the stunts – striking a pose and doing handstands beef up the multiplier and will make the difference between earning a dog poop medal and a gold trophy.
Conceptually the game goes in a cool direction. You've got huge open worlds in a 3D environment. You've got ragdoll physics that cause your on-screen persona to flail his limbs when he goes unconscious after a particularly nasty fall. You even get a couple of mini-games like Dodgeball outside of the main progression. Yes, conceptually it shows promise. Shame the entire production's dogged by sloppy programming and a development team going far beyond its and the system's capabilities.
Sure, you can run anywhere in these 3D Jackass worlds, but when controls are incredibly spotty and rigid it isn't any fun to stray beyond the normal game structure. Half the reason players skirt off the established path in sandbox-style games is because the games make it a blast to do so, but in Jackass you're fighting the controls so much that you just want to get the horror over with. The designers try to encourage the exploration by scattering icons that'll unlock costumes and other treats, but the collision detection is so terrible in this game that you'll many times pass through the icons instead of snagging them. And when some icons can only be grabbed by going airborne, it's a pain in the ass (I can say that since the title of the game also incorporates it) to accomplish these tasks since you have to be pinpoint precise in tagging them. Pair the shoddy collision detection with the stiff controls and you've got yourself a nightmare of a DS product.
The game also runs into the same problem that Activision's Transformers DS game had: open worlds aren't the Nintendo DS hardware's forte…especially when you can fly high into the air. When you go airborne and look down on your 3D world, all the little flaws and compromises of your engine tend to stand out. Watch in amazement as 3D models vanish in the distance, or fade into view as you float closer to them. And then you get the other unforeseen and unanticipated side-effects like bugs where you'll fall through the world. That happens more than a couple of times in Jackass on the DS.
Even the extra games – really, the only part of the product that utilizes the unique capabilities of the Nintendo DS – are terrible. Take the dodgeball mini-game, for example – an entirely 2D engine that has even worse controls and collision detection than the main 3D game. Last year's EA Playground has a better version of Dodgeball, and it's one of about a dozen different modes.
The only truly good element to come out of Jackass is the revelation that the Nintendo DS has the ability to do rudimentary ragdoll physics. Now let's employ that tech in a game that's actually fun to play.
©2008-01-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved