[Retrospective] Jackass: The Game – PlayStation 2

 

Hi I’m Johnny Knoxville

Bam Margera recently posted several worrying videos on social media about his experience and subsequent removal from upcoming movie Jackass 4. It made us think way back to 2007 when developer Sidhe, Red Mile and MTV Games attempted to bring the gross-out humour to a new audience in video game form. Jackass: The Game released on PlayStation 2, PSP and was later ported to the Nintendo DS – albeit by Sensory Sweep Studios – to mixed reviews.

The premise of the game recreated what we loved about the show, and movies, allowing us to take control of the zany cast in a series of mini-games. Ironically minus Bam – who at the time was contractually bound by Activision and the Tony Hawk franchise for his likeness. The majority of the cast – including Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy and Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, returned to provide motion capture and voiceovers.

 

The Vomlette

With a loose plotline that sees director Jeff Tremaine hospitalised, it is your duty to finish filming and collect the best clips for the upcoming series. Jackass: The Game featured 40 hilarious mini-games that follow in the tradition of the hit show allowing you to recreate the best daredevil stunts from the safety of your own couch. Remember kids/adults do NOT try this at home! Gameplay was a mix of button bashing, timing and luck.

The game itself was split into different modes with bonus content. MTV Story Mode was the main focus of the campaign and allowed you to unlock additional content and costumes. The Episodes mode was formatted in parallel to a themed TV show and allowed the player to complete series of crazy stunts in whatever order they desired.

As an added extra the game also offered a theatre mode, which included some of the shows classic stunts and a behind the scenes look into the making of. While it wasn’t ever going to be perfect the game was fun to play and the audio and visual was great for the time. It’s sad that Jackass: The Game was limited in success due to its nature and potential fanbase as the in-game physics worked well and gave that stomach-churning feel of achieving the seemingly impossible.

 

 

The big question is, will the Jackass experience ever return to consoles for a new instalment? Sadly it’s highly unlikely but there’s always hope for a HD remaster. Hell, we’ll even take a port – especially considering Sony’s recent announcement about the closure of legacy PlayStation stores.

 

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