Justice is a dish best served cold, but it's even better when it's served to the extreme. Extreme Justice is a second helping of Sony's PSP exclusive franchise, Pursuit Force.

For the uninitiated, the Pursuit Force is an elite police unit who prefer leaping between car bonnets at high speeds and going in guns blazing to sluggish negotiations. It's balls to the wall action as you attempt to save Capital City from the clutches of merciless gangs terrorising the streets, amid scrutiny from rival police division, Viper Squad.

High-speed pursuits are the division's speciality, but are by no means your only method to complete your goal. You will need to ditch your wheels (or lack there of in the case of the newly included hovercrafts and jetskis) and switch to foot as you run around shooting up enemy bases, or take to the skies if you need extra support from the comfort of high-powered helicopter gunships. Of course if you feel like taking your time, there's always a sniper rifle. Coupled with some stereotypical pattern-based boss sections, the game has a habit of mixing up the gameplay within levels to keep you on your toes. You'll even find yourself traversing the wings of an aircraft mid-flight in the name of justice. It's all very exciting and flashy; pure Hollywood blockbuster in videogame form.

The sections that put you behind the wheel are great fun and no doubt the pick of the bunch, but the same can't be said about the on foot sections, which fast become a tedious affair. With only the analogue nub for movement you are restricted to a control scheme that feels unintuitive and outdated, especially amid the fast paced nature of the game. With precision aiming needed at a distance, I all but gave up to just run straight in for a bout of melee combat instead. It's a real shame as these could have worked well if the gameplay was toned back in favour of more arcadey mechanics like the rest of the game.

The rest of the game is fun and the ever-changing forms of gameplay within levels prevent the game from becoming stale, yet it still none the less feels repetitious even early on. It's a game best played in short doses rather than one straight five hour sitting.

There are three main modes of single player gameplay, but you'll need to play through the story mode to unlock levels in the other areas. Fortunately, the plot and voice acting are surprisingly enjoyable. Although predictable, in an action flick kind of way, there's enough twists and charm to keep it interesting. The characters aren't as annoying and unlikeable as you'd expect for a game with "Extreme" in the title.

Finishing the entire story mode of the game left me with only around 17% completion, so there's a whole lot of gameplay still to be had in the other game modes. Bounty mode allows you to replay the story missions at increased difficulties in competition for points to unlock items in the shop. With just shy of 100 items to be unlocked, including cheats, music and video clips, there's plenty to keep you occupied if you're persistent to see all the game has to offer. Then again, it all depends on how much you enjoy the game the first time round. Challenge mode brings some new short, brief challenges set within the game levels. On the whole through the 3 modes it is all rather repetitive, but best in short bursts or on the go.

Multiplayer makes a debut, which while robust I must unfortunately say feels somewhat of a wasted opportunity, as it is Ad-Hoc only. As a long time PSP owner, I'm honestly yet to play anyone over Ad-Hoc except for the purpose of a review, so it always frustrates me when Infrastructure mode is left out. Still if you have another friend with the game, you'll get a lot out of the multiplayer.


Graphics in the cut scenes show off some top notch work from the game engine, but in-game they aren't quite as smooth, with a bit of anti-aliasing here and there. In-game loading is simply handled in the background, but as the speed picks up later in the game, it seemed that the level couldn't load fast enough with sections of the track missing as the game struggled to keep up. Not game ruining, but just annoying.

Pursuit Force once again proves simple short bursts of arcadey fun. As a Sony owned property, you know to expect quality and it meets the mark of a fun and enjoyable experience on the go. For fans of the first, it's more of the same, yet bigger and better, so take that as you will. Extreme Justice is good simple fun, it's perfectly suited for gaming on the go, just don't expect a game that will challenge you mentally and tug on your heartstrings.

On a final note, just like the PSP exclusive instalments of Grand Theft Auto and Syphon Filter before it, Extreme Justice is also poised to make the jump across to the PS2 sometime in the year. Stay posted for news on this as details emerge.