Crusty Demons review

Oh, good, another freestyle motorcross game! That's sarcasm. We've got to think that another extreme action sports game at this point in the Xbox's lifecycle has to be running on fumes. But then Crusty Demons comes along, which runs on something completely different: pure human blood!

The titular Demons are a bunch of moto-x daredevils who inconveniently die during a big trick, only to find themselves spared and courted by Satan himself. Pull off gnarly flips, jumps, kicks and handstands and Ol' Hickory will make you his personal champion. Or something. All that really matters is that Satan's a sadist, so you get points for not only completing your stunt challenges but also for colossally botching them. Broken bones, pints of blood, the distance can skid on the ground and leave a blood trail behind - these, too, offer rewards, complete with slow-mo instant-replay tally screens. It's sick, it's twisted and yeah, we like it.

Aside from the carnage, fans of any Tony Hawk game will feel like they've already played Crusty Demons: zoom around free-form worlds seeking out challenges from pedestrians, complete them, then win a race to move on to the next level. Twitchy steering makes the races not much fun, while popping overinflated sex dolls and ramming into pimps doesn't even reach the lofty heights of Jackass. But the game knows it's juvenile and just dives in headfirst, and this up-front admissionmakes it work. Ground tricks are frustratingly hard to perform, but otherwise, Crusty Demons will make sicko adrenaline junkies smile.