PAIN (PSN)

Pain is one of the more original titles to hit the download services. But while it’s not just a bland tech demo for rag doll physics or the ‘Havok’ physics engine, it does come close. The goal is to load a guy into a giant sling, point where you want to fire, and shoot him away, causing him as much environmental damage as possible. The more damage caused, the higher your score.

To increase the damage he can grab other people or objects and throw them on his way down. Although it sounds horribly violent, all of the violence is carried out in a comical fashion; your character never breaks a limb or loses any blood. He does scream quite a lot, however. The ‘stunts’ take place over a couple of blocks in a city filled with various targets to hit including an old lady, an oversized bowling ball and pins, explosive crates, and...monkeys.

There is a variety of moves the characters can pull off as they fly through the air, such as waving their legs like helicopter blades or spreading their legs to expose their crotch for a nice, painful landing - Ooch. Once they hit the ground players can get more air time by using the ‘Ooch’ function controlled using d-pad buttons; Ooch makes the character jerk in that direction; more lift can be gained from Ooch by shaking the controller until the Ooch logo sets on fire.

As you play through, scoring more and more points, extra modes/costumes become available. Unfortunately, these unlockables are the only reason to continue playing and while there are extra characters to download they cost $1.90 each - bringing the total cost for the ‘complete package’ up quite a fair amount. However, without the extra characters the novelty value wears off quickly.

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