Stuntman Ignition

Info:
Developer: Paradigm
Puplisher: THQ
2007
Genre: Action/Racing

Story:
A stuntman (you) is hired to perform automotive stunts for various (fake) films. You must prove your worth by training for certain stunts and then following through with near flawless scripted performances of flaming automotive ballet. Sounds fun right?

Gameplay:
Essentially it is a linear racing game in which you must perform the right stunts on target or be punished with a poor score (or a complete failure and re-shoot). While that may sound a tad boring, it is actually quite fun. Shit blows up around you. The clock is ticking. You need to hit your marks. The director is instructing you the next move like a robot. It is all fun and games until you hit a stunt sequence that is really hard. Then you try again, again, and again until you complete it with a satisfactory score to please the director. It can be wicked tedious, but rewarding when accomplished.

Graphics:
Ok, this is where the game totally faceplants and loses all its teeth. The graphics are absolutely horrible. The car tires are not completely round, the shading is spotty, the textures look like they were created in MS Paint (ok, maybe I am being a little harsh there) The lighting reflection effects are laughable. It baffles me to no end that a game publisher would make a sequel for a system that looks worse than the original game that was created nearly 6 years prior. Perhaps this is one of those occassions where the game was coded originally for a different system (i.e. xbox 360) and then ported over to the PS2. At any rate, the graphics are terrible and really ruin how good the game could have been with a tad more programing and polish. I should note that this game is one of the last "New" games to be released for the PS2 before the throne was slowly passed onto the PS3. Conventional thought leads us to believe that most game developers get more capable with the consoles hardware after they spend years discovering the limitations of the system. Nope... not these guys... They left conventional logic at the doorstep, next to the flea-bitten, skanky, stray cat with no ears. That's ok, the stray cat is using the DVD case for Stuntman 2 as a litterbox.

Sound:
Forgettable and annoying.

Verdict:

I'll just start by saying that I absolutely loved the original "Stuntman" game for Playstation 2 when it came out way back when. The graphics were decent, the concept was new, the overall feel for the game was a tad rough, but addictive in its own right.

That being said, Stuntman Ignition does the franchise no justice as a sequel. Hell, I probably can't call it a franchise now because the sequel does not leave you starving for more like the first game did. The only redeeming points to the sequel are:

-It still feels addictive (not as much as the first one)
-The (fictional) car variety is fun and enjoyable to unlock for the "Stunt Constructor Mode"
-Random Stuff blows up... and it can be pretty funny. lol

On the opposite end of the spectrum... The not-so-spiffy stuff with the game includes:

-The graphics are bottom-rate (and that's being nice)
-The cut scenes, that are supposed to show YOUR completed stunts, are pre-rendered and actually not your stunts at all. Yeah, you heard that right... they show you what you accomplished with a premade clip of what should have been accomplished. It's low and unrewarding. Evidence that they cut corners to make a quick sequel.
-Everything about the game is inferior to the original, except the tutorial and explanation cut-scenes.

So, in conclusion. Stuntman Ignition for PS2 is moderately fun, but graphically ugly. If you see this in the budget bin at Gamestop you have two choices. "Should I blow 10 bucks on this game and be slightly entertained for a few days or should I turn it into $10 worth of quarters and buy a ton of those superballs from the Grocery Store gumball/toy vending machines?" In comparison... when it comes down to pure entertainment, the superballs have a slight edge.