Being a stuntman isn't an easy job. Getting thrown across a room, being blasted out of a window, driving like a madman through a complex set of obstacles, explosions and other moving vehicles, getting high kicked off a ledge by the latest martial arts superstar... and all the while pretending to be someone else, or relegated to the role of Nameless Goon #6, the mark of your best work when standing in for a star being that no one ever knows you were there! Well, all that changes with Stuntman: Ignition, where you step into the fireproof shoes of a stuntman and take centre stage as the star of the show, driving your way through six movie parodies while pulling off as many insane and spectacular stunts as possible.

The presentation throughout Stuntman: Ignition is quite simply some of the best I've ever seen; it's so well conceived and maximises the use of the game's theme perfectly. You begin each movie with the camera shifting around a director's wall filled with sketches, photos, diagrams of stunts, notes and much more, as the director introduces himself and tells you what he's expecting of you, then your stunt co-ordinator, who sticks with you throughout your career, takes you through a few notes on what's coming up. Each scene has an introduction that appears while the level quickly loads, which can be skipped after the first few seconds if you wish, but your co-ordinator takes you through the key stunts for each scene, making this well worth a watch so you have some idea of what's coming up. Once you're through that then it's lights, camera, action!

Each of the six films is split into six scenes, which can last between one and three minutes, and while this might not sound like a lot, intense concentration and split-second reflexes are required for every second of every scene, so there's plenty to be going on with. Each film is a parody of a well-known movie or genre, and the developers have really had a lot of fun poking fun at films, the personality of directors and indeed whole genres. The game has a great sense of humour and will often have you chuckling before you get down to the serious business of nailing the many stunts that each scene demands of you.

You begin with Aftershock, a volcano disaster movie and one of the most spectacular sets in the whole game, with huge fireballs raining down all around you, buildings collapsing, cars being blown up everywhere you go and rivers of lava. Next up is Whoopin' and a Hollerin' II, directed by a Jackass-style group of clowns and spoofing the Dukes of Hazzard, definitely the most comical of the collection with town and rural locations to drive through. Strike Force Omega is a clichéd modern war film set in the Middle East, directed by and starring a muscle-bound action hero, while Overdrive is a seventies detective movie set in San Francisco with a suitably cheesy lead and villain ("It's loose cannon versus loose cannon!") Finally, Never Kill Me Again is a fun spoof of Die Another Day, which takes place entirely on snow and ice making the driving quite tricky, and Night Avenger is a comic book movie where you get to drive a suped-up motorbike and a car that looks suspiciously like the Batmobile from Batman Begins, around a city that looks very Gotham.

Through the usage of each theme and the series of scenes in each movie, the overall experience is much more cohesive than in the original Stuntman, and you really feel immersed in the atmosphere of the game. Indeed, when you've completed the scenes and unlocked the movie trailers, which show various stunts as well as the lead characters, you feel like you'd quite like to watch the whole movie! A nice touch is that you play multiple characters and drive multiple vehicles in each movie too - you will play the hero and the main bad guy or even sub-characters, in different scenes that aren't necessarily filmed in the order they will feature in the movie. The handling of the many vehicles is pretty solid; a couple are a little tricky at times and can be prone to oversteering, but generally speaking they're easy to control and quick to get the hang of, and you get to drive a real range, including motorbikes, vans, sports cars, trucks, and even an articulated lorry carrying huge missiles! Some vehicles have weapons too, like in Overdrive when you're firing your gun out the window, or in Never Kill Me Again where you get to drive a car with missiles and machine guns, and later on even a hovercraft, in one of the most fun levels of the game, but with one of the most frustratingly tricky finales. Obviously the Night Avenger has a few tricks up his sleeves too...

One of the biggest criticisms of Stuntman was its high difficulty level and degree of trial and error, which for some was just too frustrating and pedantic, although personally I loved it. The developers took this feedback on board and this time around, while you still need precision and indeed will need to virtually memorise the sequence of events if you want to perfect each scene, you can get through them while making a number of mistakes and still complete the scene to the director's satisfaction. This is thanks to the star rating - you can miss up to four stunts before the director calls for a reshoot and the rating you're given at the end is determined by your score. As long as you have at least one star, you can move onto the next scene. It's possible to get through the whole game fairly quickly in this way, but if you've got even the slightest sense of pride then you'll want to at least get a three or four star rating, while completists will delight in playing each scene over and over until they get that elusive five-star rating.

The main stunts (where you earn a strike if you fail them) are marked by vital yellow markers, which clearly indicate exactly what you have to do. Depending on the symbol, you might need to pass close to an object or vehicle, jump over something, slide under something on your motorbike, go on two wheels in a car, do a reverse 180, drift right or left, activate nitro, get through a tight gap, smash into an object, fire your weapons, pass through a time gate, get close to an explosion and more. Each stunt type has a clear marker telling you what to do, as well as your co-ordinator, who's really the only sane and balanced personality in the game. His voice is reassuring and strong, as he calmly and quickly reads out commands to give you an audio cue of what's coming next, which complements the visual ones perfectly.

Now, here comes the best part - it's possible to get a five-star rating and still mess up a stunt or two, thanks to the ingenious system of 'stringing stunts'. The idea is that you have to continue pulling stunts with no more than a two-second gap between each - manage this and you've 'strung it' and earned your five stars. The beauty of this is that you can pull off stunts that aren't marked in the main event sequence; passing close to any object or even a wall, getting air from an unmarked ramp, pulling a wheelie at any time on your motorbike, drifting around any corner in any vehicle, all of these count as stunts and are used to keep your string of stunts intact, with your score building up by a multiplier that's incremented every time you pull off a marked or unmarked stunt. Although it's sometimes pretty tough to get a stunt at least once every two seconds, perseverance will reward you with that five-star rating, after which you can sit back and watch the instant replay, filmed from various director-style camera angles, to see just how great your driving will look in the movie!

When you combine the flexibility of being allowed to mess up a few stunts and keep going, as well as the opportunity for voluntary stunts all around you in every scene, the end result is an experience that's just as intense and fast-paced as the original, but more lenient and flexible, and thus a lot more fun. It also means that you'll be able to scrape through all but the toughest scenes on the first couple of runs, so you know what's coming in the latter parts of the scene and can mentally prepare yourself for stringing it.

One of the best little touches in Ignition, which is missing in so many games, especially on the PS2, is the way that a level is retained in memory until you've finished playing it. For a game where you will need so many restarts, this is such a vital point and the developers should be congratulated for getting it right. There is literally no loading if you decide to restart a scene, or are forced to due to getting five strikes; you are just instantly transported back to the beginning and the countdown of three, and off you go again. The same goes for watching the replay of your work again, while the loading times for starting a new scene or loading any other part of the game are next to nothing.

There's plenty more to do than just stunt driving in the movies too, and again the developers have gone out of their way to include lots of lifespan-enhancing features and modes. For starters you can view your stats at any time, which includes the star status you've achieved as a stuntman so far, as well as the various awards you've been nominated for due to your performance of particularly dangerous and difficult stunts, and the badges you've earned for achieving certain objectives. There are extras too - some concept art, a behind the scenes video and a live video from the Taurus World Stunt Awards, which sees lots of stuntmen and celebrities doing crazy things and making spectacular entrances.

There's a series of six Odd Jobs to complete, three in a stunt arena and three for spoof commercials, which are much more akin to the original Stuntman, as you have to hit every stunt or a reshoot is called. They're shorter than the film scenes but still a lot more frustrating, reminding us of just how much better Ignition is when compared to its predecessor, as well as providing an extra, optional challenge for the hardcore among you. Then there's the multiplayer element (sadly only head to head on split screen, so if you want online play you need a next-gen version), where you can head onto the film lots behind the scenes. Backlot Race is first to the finish, while in Backlot Battle it's all about pulling off stunts, but with a twist - each stunt is only available once, so it's a race to see who can get which stunt first, on courses littered with multiple routes and multiple stunts along each route, plus if you ram your opponent then you'll steal his whole string of stunt scores for yourself! Finally is the Stunt Tourney, a mode where you and a group of friends can take it in turns to complete any scene you've unlocked in the Career mode. The multiplayer won't keep you entertained forever, but it's a fun addition that's great when two fans of the single player game get together.

There's also a Quick Fix mode with a series of Freestyle and Directed levels for you to stunt your way through, again taking scenes or sets from the movies, and a Constructor mode, where you are placed in an empty arena and can build your own playground of obstacles, ramps and objects to stunt around in. The Constructor is easy to use and the objects and vehicles available are unlocked during Career, encouraging you to go back and unlock everything that's on offer. As well as its Freestyle Arena mode, there's the Contructor Challenge, where a series of stunts is indicated in an empty arena and you have to place objects, from a limited selection, to allow you to complete each stunt in the time provided, with just enough objects given to allow you to string it and get the five-star rating if you place things carefully. The Constructor isn't something that will appeal to everyone, but if you enjoy having your own playground to mess around in then I'm sure the hours will just slip by!

As great as everything about this game is, the visuals are looking a bit shabby by today's standards, which is why I recommend picking this up on PS3 or Xbox 360 if you have the option to do so. Everything looks good enough to enjoy the gameplay, but it's all a bit grainy, with some really dull, basic textures in places, giving a less than spectacular overall look to the game. The graphics do their job just fine; each movie has its own unique atmosphere and the vehicles look reasonable, but considering the graphical leap in racing games between generations, the PS2 just can't compete with the next-gen any more in this genre. At least the sound is brilliant though - each movie has its own collection of musical themes that's very appropriate and perfectly fitting with its unique style, while the voice acting is excellent all round, from the exaggerated personalities of the directors and the downright cheesy dialogue and delivery in the movie trailers, to the beautifully pitched sanity of your stunt co-ordinator. The sound effects meanwhile are generally good, but lack impact sometimes when it comes to weapons fire and explosions.

The only real word of caution I can give about Ignition is that it still isn't for everyone - if you consider yourself a casual gamer who likes to switch off rather than focus while playing, or you're not very patient, then this probably isn't for you. Also, the only reason I'm not marking it higher overall is that the graphics on PS2 don't quite do the concept justice, so you'd be better off picking it up on another system if you can. If that option isn't available however, there's still plenty of enjoyment to be had in the PS2 version, and the graphics are good enough that they don't detract from the experience - but you will notice that they're not wonderful from time to time.

Stuntman: Ignition is an absolute triumph of a sequel. It takes its cues from a solid original, eliminating everything that frustrated gamers while still retaining the same intense and challenging gameplay, but making it so that most gamers can at least complete their Career, even if they don't earn a high rating in every scene. The film settings and vehicles are truly imaginative and varied, the presentation is classy throughout, the stunt sequences you have to undertake are tough, varied and exciting, and the whole experience is a non-stop, adrenaline-fuelled thrill-ride that will keep you captivated for every blistering second and demand that you return time and time again until you've perfected every last scene.

Cut! That's a wrap, folks!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).