You thought I was going to start this review with a moan about how long it’s taken PAIN to float across the Atlantic into our PSN store, right? Well you’d be wrong! Haha! No, I’m not miffed at all. I’m serene. You know why? Being able to catapult a chap a few hundred yards into a giant doughnut and then watching it roll off its railings into a few glass windows and cars completely takes away all the stress a man can have.

PAIN is, as its name suggests, a game in which you inflict all sorts of bother one your main character in the crusade for points. Fancy smashing him through a glass window and under the wheels of an oncoming bus, or into a large bowling pin before seeing him plunge through a glass roof? Go right on ahead! It’s the kind of thing that’ll get you and your mates crowded around the screen yelping and gasping with a mixture of amusement and guilt as your little dude ends up in a crumpled heap amongst broken wreckage.

The general flow of gameplay starts with your chosen character in a makeshift catapult at the start of the level. From here you can set your aim and power and propel him off toward all sorts of agonising impacts with the landscape (for now limited to just the single level, with future instalments given the dreaded ‘coming soon’ tag) in order to cause as much destruction as you can, thus earning you points. It’s a remarkably simple premise, but one that is addictive and good fun nonetheless.

There are a few things added in to the mixture to spice it up, of course. Scattered around the level are a number of curiously placed explosive crates that can boost your poor character vast distances and help you chain your destruction quite nicely. Then there are the ‘Ooohs’, which act in the same manner that Burnout’s Crash Breakers; basically, a bar charges as you crunch into things and allows you – once fully charged – to tap a button to sling your dude along the floor and hopefully into something painful.

The best thing about PAIN is the rather brutal edge that the physics give the whole thing. Clang into something at full speed and you fly off in a rather agonising flailing of arms and legs, whilst hitting other structures causes a massive domino effect as objects tumble into others. Cause destruction one time around and that decimation will stay for your continued efforts unless you choose to reset it yourself. Should you have performed something particularly brutal there’s also the option to check a replay of it out, but sadly as of now there’s no option to save your favourites for later viewing.

Chucked in for good measure are a couple of multiplayer modes, with old favourite Horse giving a few chums the chance to take it in turns for high scores, the loser of which gets a letter and the ultimate loser spelling out the entire word. There’s also a rather splendid bowling mode where you fire your bloke out of the sling into some oversized pins, and it’s really rather curiously addictive.

For a crispy fiver you could do a lot worse, and with a few downloadable characters (comedy clichés such as small ninjas and busty nurses) and new levels on the horizon it could gain itself some much-needed variety. As it is, PAIN’s a great laugh every now and again, but those wanting something with a little more longevity and diversity may get a little bored. Still, it does what it says on its virtual tin, so here’s to that additional content getting here soon.