Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced the launch of the downloadable title PAIN, available exclusively on PLAYSTATIONStore for PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system. Developed by Denver-based Idol Minds, PAIN is a unique game focused on cultural relevance to the teen market, including comedy, creativity, community and competition. Complete with various single player and multiplayer modes, PAIN is a highly creative, comedic experience that invites players to explore the environment on their own, play head-to-head with friends or compete with the masses via the online leaderboards. PAIN is available for download on PLAYSTATION Store for $9.99.

    In PAIN, players launch their character from a giant slingshot into a destructible downtown environment riddled with precarious obstacles and humorous situations. Players earn points by stringing together painful collisions and inducing mass chaos in the environment. PAIN permits players to load one of several characters, each with their own unique personality and specific attributes, into an extreme launching device, a human-sized, ultra-powerful slingshot. Some of the characters initially available in PAIN are Jarvis, a Gen-X punk, and Ed, a cow mascot.

    Additionally, PAIN offers a robust online community that allows players to communicate with the development team in-game and online and provide real-time feedback of their game experience - which characters, real or fictional, they would like to launch, for example. Challenging as well as funny, players earn points by stringing together painful collisions and inducing mass chaos in the environment.

    The player must achieve a wide variety of goals or reach various scoring milestones in the different modes of play. Each time a player launches into the environment, the physics and animation data is stored on the PS3's HDD allowing the player to view a replay instantly. With control over various camera angles and the replay speed - slow motion and fast forward - users can edit and view the replay for maximum comedy. PAIN ships with several distinctive single player modes, including the gut-busting "Spank the Monkey," where the player targets taunting monkeys scattered in the environment, and the hilarious "Mime Toss," where the goal is to throw a mime through various plates of glass in the fastest time possible.

    Jeff Reese, director, product marketing, SCEA commented: "PAIN is a compelling example of the creative and original software that is available on PLAYSTATION Network. PAIN's slapstick humor offers fun and competitive gameplay for everyone. Additionally, the online community element will allow us to engage consumers in ongoing dialogue, ensuring we deliver the fresh and timely content that players want."

    These characters are launched into an active, physics-controlled environment filled with tongue-in-cheek humor as well as some treacherous and funny situations. The Havok powered physics model and lifelike ragdoll animations enforce PAIN's replayability as gamers launch their characters into an environment always ripe for different forms of demolition. Furthermore, PAIN is designed to expand and additional content will be available for download regularly following the title's launch on PLAYSTATION Network.