Jackass: The Game is as painful as the show

by JC Fletcher { Nov 30th 2007 at 10:40AM }

At DS Fanboy, we like to advocate the idea that any task can be made into a game. Given the right goals and rules, any real-world (or other) activity can be an enjoyable game -- consider the example of Brain Age, which consists of normally boring tasks with timers and scores applied to make a game-like experience. For that matter, Cooking Mama starts with the idea of simulating the steps involved with cooking, and derives minigames from those steps. Designing a game around activities not normally associated with games is an interesting way of stimulating creativity, and adding some novelty to the medium.

It is for this reason that we don't really have an issue with the premise of Jackass: The Game. Our problem lies with the execution. Sure, we haven't played it, but we already know from the screens (and based on the fact that it's a licensed Jackass game) that Jackass: The Game won't be an avant-garde experiment in game design. It's just a game about hurting yourself in a shopping cart or whatever. One with no consistent visual style, for that matter, which is a bad sign. Some games are in 2D, some are in 3D. Maybe that's the experimental part.