After E3 2005 there were a lot of websites and magazines proclaiming Sony's Pursuit Force as being the PSP game of the show and for good reason. Developed by BigBig Studios, the game is an action tour de force, a title that allows you to hop into a police car and burn rubber down numerous highways in pursuit of a bunch of gangs except with a unique twist, that twist being the ability to not only fire from your moving vehicle but also the gift or flight, or rather, jumping from your car and landing onto the hood of your opponents' jeep, truck, or speed boat. It's a wonderful concept that's been expertly honed to create a fun videogame. It's just too bad that it's not enough to make it a must buy.

Things certainly start out well enough courtesy of a dramatic cut scene that sets the game's wonderful Hollywood theme. You play as an unnamed cop who's a member of the Pursuit Force, a small group of officers that have been granted the right to take down scum bags by any means necessary, hence the ability to endanger the lives of innocent bystanders by swerving into traffic and leaping from unmanned vehicles.

Your targets are five notorious gangs, all of which feature a signature and stereotypical theme. The Capelli Family, for instance, is your standard issue mafia group while the Convicts are just a bunch of crazed psychopaths that have busted out of prison. They're all appropriately dressed and feature plenty of one liners, all of which are incredibly cheesy and horribly acted, yet this was exactly what Sony and BigBig were shooting for, to develop this in your face and corny action game similar to Hollywood's summer blockbusters.

Supporting the over the top presentation is enjoyable gameplay. Driving at ludicrous speeds, slamming into bad guys, and jumping onto their rides, whereupon which you can fill them full of holes, is quite humorous and immensely satisfying, yet it's only one of the game's faces. In addition to barreling down hills and around corners while riding bikes, trucks, cars, and jeeps, you can also pilot a speed boat, sit in an attack helicopter and fire at enemies using a mini gun, and exit your toys to fight the enemy on land. The on foot missions are nothing more than simple run and gun affairs, but they break up the monotony of driving for too long. Also, BigBig further spiced things up with the Justice Meter, a gauge that, once filled, can either heal your character or slow down the action while his body is sailing through the air.

Pursuit Force is a fun game, no question, but it's not a title that I'd want to actually buy and this is for several reasons. For starters, it's just too short. The Career Mode has 30 missions and some of them can be completed pretty quickly. There is some very limited incentive, the ability to improve your score and achieve a higher letter grade, but I very rarely had any desire to replay a single mission multiple times.

Then there are the additional modes, Time Trial and Race, which aren't too engaging. I'd rather have them than not, but time Trial isn't exactly a new concept, nor is Race, but they're cool for what they're worth, and beating missions in Career Mode usually results in plenty of unlocked goodies, so there's always some new car to drive or level to explore.

I'm also disappointed with the mission difficulty and level design. For the most part, everything's just fine, but the game throws annoying objectives at you and, to make things even more irksome, the level won't be designed with said objective in mind. Case in point, there's this one mission where you're supposed to protect the mayor. It begins with you trailing another car and you need to keep your distance without being seen. That's horrible all by itself, but it doesn't help that A.) the mayor's car appears to be made out of plastic, and B.) there are way too many sharp turns. I understand that I'm driving in a city, yet at the same time, Pursuit Force's concept isn't conducive to such mechanics. In a game where I'm supposed to be driving really fast, I shouldn't have to worry about making hairpin turns. It would have been a lot better if BigBig designed more freeways or something better suited for this mission. As a result, it's too easy to lose track of the suspect.

The absence of multiplayer is another one of this game's short comings. Being able to battle against other people and jump in between cars and blow things up would have been a lot of fun, especially if there was an online component.

Thankfully, Pursuit Force is good enough to transcend its faults, but it doesn't have the replay value of Twisted Metal or Burnout Legends, two PSP titles that are similar in the sense that they're best played in short bursts but differ because they offer so much more. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you play this game because it looks great, the frame rate's solid, and the action never stops, but make this the game that you rent for the week, or better yet, the one that you ask for as a present. $39.99's just a bit too much.