New Varieties of Pain

As a joint project between developer Idol Minds (Cool
Borders 3
, 4 and MyStreet) and Sony’s marketing group, Pain hit the Playstation
Store last November. Producer Travis Williams wanted to create a game that
would capture the zeitgeist of Jackass and similar user submitted videos. Most
critics found the sophomoric antics of the game entertaining, but bemoaned the
ten dollar price of admission.


Gameplay consists of launching the player from a giant
slingshot, trying to inflict as much bodily damage as possible. First, players
use the analog stick to control the amount of power and general trajectory of
the launch. When released, players have a limited amount of control to guide
the helpless character into the levels multitude of objects until the character
strikes something. Once an environmental object is hit, players can use the
D-Pad to grab onto items and swing around.


After that, players have “ooch”, the name given to aftertouch to guide their character into further pandemonium. After hitting an object, players can shake the Sixaxis controller to get a single boost of “Super Ooch”, which is marginally stronger than the normal variety. 


Today, Pain received a  50 megabyte update (v 1.67) that adds a few new features:

  • The ability to play your own MP3s during
    gameplay.
  • Two new layouts for the Downtown map,
    where the player can be launched from the opposite or middle of the playfield.
  • Character select allows for two different
    characters in two player games.
  • The ability of skip the introductory logos.

While we found Pain to be an playful diversion, even with the new enhancements, its hard to justify the initial price tag. With additional characters costing a dollar each, and no price set for the rumored Amusement Park landscape, a starting investment of five dollars would make things, less Painful.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

35 comments

  1. I love Pain, It’s my favorite PS3 download title. Its the perfect mindless game.

  2. Never heard of it. Sounds kinda fun.

  3. If Sony ever reduces the price to even 7.99, I’m there.

  4. Midget pirates?

  5. I played this at a friends house and def. think it’s worth 10 bucks. The only thing it need is online multiplayer to compete for high scores.

  6. Sounds like the perfect summer game- fun for 10-15 minute bursts.

    Now, they need to make a PSP version!

  7. I wish it had a demo!

  8. I worry when marketing comes up with game ideas.

  9. I’m thinking it’s $10 to pay for the use of the Havok physics engine.

  10. Has anyone knocked out a few of the letters to spell ‘Hotel Oral Sex’?

    Thought it would be funny.

  11. Or you could spell Hot Oral Sex!

  12. I play this for hours at a time. I love pain.

  13. As one of the producers of Pain, I’d like to encourage readers and the editors of this site to post their suggestions to the Pain Blog:

    http://pain.us.playstation.com/default.aspx

    We listen to the players. The majority of our last update was suggested by gamers like yourselves.

    Deserteagle, is there anything particular you’d like to see added to the game?

  14. JC, how about online multi?

  15. How about characters that look like Bush, McCain and Cheney?

  16. I’d like to see a charcter on fire. Human cannonball action!

  17. Thanks for taking the time to elicit feedback, JC.

    One addition I would like to see that shouldn’t require too much programming effort, would be the ability to drop explosive crates in the playfield.

    Trying to create the perfect Rube Goldberg chain-reaction would keep me busy for hours.

  18. Great idea, Deagle.

  19. How about naked characters?

  20. The game really needs new areas. How about a Tokyo area?

  21. I played the game once, and really like the slow crumple of the scaffolding- I’d like to see more buildings like that.

  22. Good review, bad pun at the end. Make than PAInful pun.

  23. If i had a Ps3 I might buy it; by the time I purchase one, maybe this will be $5.

  24. Kind of reminds me of that one part in Saints Row where you have to cause as much damage as possible. That was the best part of that game I thought. Why not have this game for Xbox Live downloading??

  25. 360 version, puh-lease!

  26. Nice new look, I like it!

  27. I’d also like to see a PSP and 360 version!

  28. Tell me the game doesn’t have real ads on the billboards, please.

  29. I like the new look!

  30. Skip the logos? How much time could that really save?

  31. Free explosive pack is still available. That made it worth 10 bucks for me.

  32. I really like the site design! Cool colors scheme.

  33. I found Pain to be a bore. There’s really no plat and not much to it. Def. not worth 10 bucks. Save you money for a RPG with a real story, instead.

  34. Just give Pain more areas, and make then cheap. I wouldnt pay more than $3.

  35. Adding some comments to the Pain blog. Everyone who played it should do the same.