Pain takes the absurd concept of launching humans into objects and develops it into a full fledged downloadable game on the Playstation Network. Pain will make you’ll squint and cringe while laughing along the way.

Released exclusively on the Playstation Network is PAIN developed by Idol Minds Entertainment. The philosophy behind Pain is simple, cause pain to a human catapult. The more pain you deliver by slinging a human body into objects with the rule, the more pain you cause the more points you will earn. Even after you have launched the poor loose limbed victim into objects the crippled body has an “oooch” of a chance to gain more points. The heavy metal soundtrack blares, pull back on the launchers elastic straps and get ready to cause some PAIN.

Using the catapult is easy; you move it in a direction, tweak the angle and then pull back the sling with the right stick and watch the flesh fly. Jarvis will be your first genie pig and thanks to the Havok physics engine his Gumby like body will become an airborne object with amazing bounce potential. During flight you will still have control of the character which allows you to drift him into objects, or to do other tricks boosting your score.

For modes, Pain has three single-player and multiplayer modes, but before you jump into the fun you have to go through the crash course training to learn the ropes of PAIN. It’s a little annoying to be regimented through training, however it's the way Idol Minds programmed the game. If you are one of those gamers who like to learn by trail and error you might be a little taken back by Idol Minds decision. Delegating the gamer to the Crash Course training takes a little bit of the pick-up-and-play factor out of PAIN. There will be no PAIN until you learn the general controls. So if you’re looking for a quick jolt be prepared to do some work before you can go crazy with your bad self.

The lessons you will learn in the Crash Course starts with basic controls and objectives and progressively gets to the more complex movements and objectives. Surprisingly, PAIN is more than aiming and letting go. You can control your character during flight while pulling off moves aiming for objects like scaffolding that can be moved to collide with other objects creating a multiple crash course of human trauma with likely Jarvis in the middle. Jarvis will have to be able to bounce from objective to objective to score big. PAIN is more difficult than you would initially believe. It took me about an hour to really jive with the controls of PAIN, and after that hour I was good to go, and as free as a bird.

The three single player modes available in PAIN starts with ‘PAINdemonium’. Besides haven’t a clever name, PAINdemonium is the most fun mode in PAIN because it’s a straight forward mode of letting you body fly. In PAINdemonium you have free reign on the city without restrictions to learn the ropes, practice and cause some major damage, the PAIN sandbox as Sony calls it. The other two modes are fun distractions that will likely grant a few laughs. These modes are, ‘Mime Toss’ allows you to launch the mime Frenchie through panes of glass looking for the best time, and ‘Spank the Monkey’ which is based on hitting monkeys that are running wild in the city, the more monkey the more points for you. /

For multiplayer you can play the classic game of ‘Horse’ with friends. Horse is hitting certain objects that the other player hit. If you fail to hit the objects and beat your friends score you will be given a letter out of the word Horse. The first one to gathering enough letters that spell H-O-R-S-E looses. ‘Bowling’ is another fun multiplayer game that is self-explanatory, and lastly we have ‘Fun with Explosives’ where you're going for high scores and loud bangs.

PAIN has no reason or rhyme, or traditional ammunition. PAIN is just a virtual excuse to cause PAIN to the poor people who are launched into dangerous heights as unforgiving objects. Honestly, no story is needed when you can make a human sandwich of steel and flesh. Combinations, high scores and fast times is the name of the game and even though PAIN looks like a simple and easy game, it can be quite competitive and is supported with global leaderboards.

Idol Minds non-traditional downloable game PAIN is a fun diversion on the Playstation Network. Borrowing from Flat-out: Ultimate Carnage's mini-games, PAIN lets you launch human cannon balls into the atmosphere while you watch and control their horrific fall to the ground. In the name of laughter and high scores, PAIN is a smashing good hit on the PSN.

Final Score: 6.5