With regards to Jackass: there are those who like it, and those who deplore it as immature fodder for people who probably enjoy sniffing glue. That pretty sums up whether you will like the game as well. I find the Jackass television show to be both hilarious and deplorable, and the game is no different.
What little there is of plot is related to filling in for a hurt director as you film 7 episodes with 5 segments each. Each segment has 3-5 goals which can be accomplished to get more money. Get more money to unlock the next episode or extra character costumes or equally banal props to use in future segments. In addition certain episodes can be unlocked to open multiplayer challenge mode which helps bump up the replay slightly.
All of the characters are here from the show, and this proves to be one of the best things about the game because it feels like a truly brutal extension of the television series as you complete stunts no human being would be capable of such as launching Steve-O over four backyards with a human sling-shot or waterskiing on a trashcan lid through a neighborhood. The voice acting is superb and gets the feel perfectly. The soundtrack even adds to the game by giving an eclectic feel to each game, and reminding me I need to dust off my Folk Implosion and Skinny Puppy albums. Unfortunately, the graphics don’t quite attain the same level; each person’s avatar is off and wouldn’t be recognizable if it weren’t for the voice. While this is definitely the case for the PS2, the PSP fares better with the smaller screen as it is not as obvious.
Each segment requires a set of goals to complete, and even a few for extra credit while others require a score to pass, such as dancing as Party Boy to a sequence of button-pushes. This system allowed for a lot of control schemes that mostly hit the mark, but didn’t really elevate the game much beyond an overall themed mini-game. The simple game designs are very easy, almost too easy, as you find yourself focusing on the extra credit items rather on completing the segments, and while they are amusing to amass to open extra unlocks, it never required you to get these objectives in one run which could have boosted the difficulty level to at least the A
