Jackass Q&A

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Aaron Rigby, producer on the upcoming Jackass game, has given a short Q&A that touches on what we can expect from the PS2 and PSP bone breaker.

Where did the inspiration comes from for the game?

Aaron Rigby: The original series was the biggest inspiration. It was just crazy and creative. The way the jackass crew had the show set up gave us the opportunity to draw from a huge amount of stunts.

Is the game based in actual sketches or are they completely new?

Rigby: Nearly every stunt is original. The risk-factor of the stunts has been pushed higher for the game so, as tough as the guys are, they probably wouldn't survive things like diving off a sky-scraper or rolling down a street in a trash can. We can get away with a lot more peril in the games that would be suicidal with real people.

Does Jackass - The Game have multiplayer elements?

Rigby: The PS2 will give you head-to-head and round-robin gameplay and the PSP version takes advantage on the Wi-Fi features for multiplayer.

What are the differences between the PSP and the PS2 versions?

Rigby: Well, multiplayer is one of the differences. The PSP version also supports editing and exporting your replays. Basically, you play a stunt, save the replay, head over to Director mode and edits things like length, camera angels, add slo-mo, then export the stunt to your memory stick. Once it's exported, you can upload the stunt too and show off your mad skills. For the PS2, you'll get more detailed environments, including pedestrians to annoy during the stunts, and we expanded on the Bail-Out feature, where you rack up points based on how many injuries your character sustains.

Was it very difficult to create a game based in a TV series that hasn't got any kind of story or screenplay?

Rigby: Definitely. The story was pretty basic initially, but we got help from the Jackass cast to make it more authentic. It was their input that made the story-line work and their voices that added the credibility and humour to it.

The big appeal of Jackass is the spontaneity. Do you think you have succeeded translating this into a videogame?

Rigby: That was a real pain. In most games success is success, you either accomplished your goals or you didn't. Jackass doesn't work like that. The stunts in the show were just as good whether they accomplished what they set out to do or failed completely. That means that our goals in a stunt had to make sure that an entertaining failure worked just as well as a resounding success.

Gavin Ogden