50 Cent: Bulletproof

Format PlayStation Portable

Developer High Voltage

Publisher Vivendi

Genre Beat 'em Up

His PS2 game stank, his movie was a turkey, but after being shot nine times the least you'd expect 50 Cent to do is bounce back for more.

And surprisingly he might just have got things right this time. Like Killzone: Liberation, the PSP version of Bulletproof (cleverly subtitled G Unit Edition) is played from a top-down, role-playing game-style perspective. It's essentially a hack and slash dungeon crawler with the mean streets of New York replacing the dungeons and a posse of street gangs and drug dealers playing the monsters. Think Untold Legends meets Boyz N The Hood.

Combat works via a combination of guns and simple head-bashing clubs, chains, and other hideously violent melee weapons. Fiddy's new slowly regenerating stamina bar determines whether or not he can pull off over 36 gruesome counter-kills by turning an enemy's weapon against him, and you'll also need to top up his health with painkillers found in crates and barrels.

As with the PS2 game, Bulletproof is unfortunately also one big Fiddy plug, so if you don't like his brand of misogyny then you might want to steer clear of the 16 music vids and 160 music tracks. There's even a customisable wardrobe of clothes consisting of Marc Ecko's new autumn and winter clothing lines.

Up to six players can compete in five multiplayer game modes, including Urban Warfare (deathmatch), King of Bling (deathmatch but where players try to steal cash from each other), and Breaking and Entering (one team protects a number of cars from the other side). Dr Dre and Eminem are just two of the 16 playable multiplayer characters.

PSW Staff