It has been several years since Jackass was taken off the air. Since then, there have been subsequent movies and television shows featuring people made famous by the brand, and for some reason, long after the show has lost its relevance, now a game. That's not to say the game itself isn't occasionally fun, because strangely enough, it is at times, but that Jackass has literally not had a release of any kind in quite some time. Nonetheless, the game amazingly succeeds in some ways and even if it may be by aping other games entirely, in the end it works.

The gameplay itself consists of a series of mini-games, with the game's "plot" revolving around a sort of fourth season of the show. As the story mode opens, the original director gets hurt, leaving you to fill in by putting together the best footage of the various stunts that take place over the course of the game. Inevitably, like most mini-game collections, there are some that are fun, others that are even well designed, and finally those that are so atrocious that you will do whatever it takes to stop the pain involved with playing them, and Jackass has a few of each. Each mini-game has a series of goals, and some overarch like causing a certain amount of damage (or less damage in challenge mode), while others simply require destruction or obtaining a certain score. There are different medals awarded depending on how many of goals players complete, with a bronze moving the game's loose story along, and silver and gold unlocking new costumes and video of actual Jackass episodes.

If you like the Jackass style of stunts, you'll probably enjoy what this game offers.

Essentially though, if you are not a fan of Jackass, there is very little to like in this game. The multi-tiered goals can be fairly entertaining, especially with the fun mini-games, but certain ones are so heinous that, as stated before, going back and getting gold medals on them is in no way worthwhile. Strangely, the gameplay itself actually works well on the few gems that are included, though. Generally, it takes a few playthroughs to understand a particular activity, but once you get the hang of it, the end result is at least entertaining. Of course, some of the best mini-games here are stolen from other collections, and it's not necessarily a good thing that this is when Jackass is at its best. Still, the mini-games were created to be fun, and for the most part, they are.

There are additional modes past the main feature mode, such as a challenge mode where the games are replayed with harder goals to achieve. Yet, as is a recurring theme, only the good games are really worth replaying, while the others will likely remain untouched. The unlockables that can be collected with gold medals can be entertaining, such as outtakes of the various Jackasses performing their lines and the aforementioned clips from the show, however, the game still quickly loses its appeal after its main component ends. There is an additional editor where you can take saved replays from in-game runs and paste them together to create the most entertaining clips, but it's not very fun to use, so there is little reason to.

A multiplayer mode is also featured, which allows players to host either individual stunts or entire episodes with the winner being the one with the highest score. Only a handful of the mini-games are available, which are generally the ones featuring multiple Jackasses; racing or whatever the stunt may be. The problem is, these are actually the weakest events in the game and are generally not fun to participate in. Additionally, it can be difficult to find players online in the PSP version of the game. It seemed that no matter what time we searched for games, there were none to be found. Outside of that, there is also online content available, but it only consists of user created clips, and there are no additional stunts for download or anything like that. The PS2 version has no online play, but does offer similar modes for up to four local players. Excluding the aptly named "ass-to-ass" two player mode, the PlayStation 2 version plays nearly identically, with many, if not nearly all, of the same stunts and mini-games from the PSP.

Graphically, this game is generally ugly. Nearly every Jackass is featured, excluding Bam Margera, and graphical representations of them, down to their idiotic tattoos, is spot on. Each person was mo-capped and although they act like their real-life counterparts, it makes little difference given the overall quality of the visuals. The environments are bland and generally look atrocious. Many consist of back alleys with no fidelity whatsoever, and although this is a PSP and PS2 release, it's disappointing that everything features only eight or nine colors. Of the stunts, some look better than others, which might mean that even the developers tended to favor particular activities. In the end, the game generally looks bad, and its ugliness far outweighs the few positives that are present.

On the sound front, the cast of Jackass voice their characters well enough, and they spout the sort of lines one may expect. Unfortunately, even though the game has a mature rating, many of the lines are censored, and there is no way of disabling that. Given the trial and error nature of the game, these voiceovers will grow more and more irritating with each successive attempt due to the excessive bleeps that are bound to take place. In addition, the musical selection is a hodgepodge of bands that would probably be featured on the show. However, much like the spoken dialog, the developers chose to attach one song to each mini-game, and the repetition definitely gets annoying. Overall, the audio fares a bit better than graphics, but not by much.

The graphics on display here are far from impressive.

The biggest differences between the PS2 and PSP versions lie in the challenge and multiplayer modes which were mentioned earlier. Of course, the control is slightly easier on the PS2, but since Jackass is just a variety of mini-games, the differences are pretty irrelevant. Unless the pick up and play aspect of the PSP appeals to you, there are few notable differences between the two. Given how the online multiplayer on the PSP is always empty, there's no particular advantage to owning one over the other.

The release of Jackass the Game at this point in time comes across as pretty strange. Although the game succeeds at being entertaining, its timing makes little sense. Between being based on a show without any new episodes in several years, and having its primary release be on the PlayStation 2, there is an air of irrelevancy to the entire product. Flaws and all, Jackass plays well enough, and if you're fan of the TV series, you're bound to at least get some enjoyment out of the game.