It's your wedding day - the happiest moment of your life. All of your family are there, with tears in their eyes, and you're about to kiss the bride. Suddenly, a massive truck drives into the wedding and mass panic ensues. A gang of criminals wreak havoc as the guests attempt to escape. You and your wife merely sigh, as you jump into a nearby car and begin pursuing the gang. As the commander of Pursuit Force - the police of the city - it's all in a day's work for you, even if your backup happens to be in a wedding dress!

Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is all-out action. There is no stopping this behemoth of energy as you go from one set piece to another without the action letting up. The finest aspect of the original, the frantic pace of Extreme Justice is just as good and you'll find your heart racing throughout. It's a constant adrenaline rush of crime fighting in a fictional city overrun by gangs that need to be sorted out. You'll be shooting wave after wave of enemies, searching for the big names behind each group of criminals and jumping from a lot of cars, boats, vans, aeroplanes and other vehicles. The game is a high-octane thrill ride that is unmatched on the PSP, but who needs thrills if the rest of the game is lacking? It's good then that this isn't the case here.

For a game that focuses on cleaning the streets of deadly gangs and washed up criminals, you'd expect a story involving superheroes and crazed madmen. Extreme Justice holds true to this, apart from the superheroes aspect, and is a lighthearted take on the police. There's as much deception, intrigue, double crossing and threat as a series of 24, but it's presented in a simple and stereotypical way, the latter being a word that can describe every character in the game. The main difference to the last game's plot is the addition of rival crime fighters the Viper Squad, which adds a new layer to the storyline, with you both suspecting and trusting this squad to deal with the clean up of your work. For a handheld game, the story is surprisingly good, and while it isn't a completely serious epic struggle for justice, it fits the tone of the game perfectly and keeps you interested in your squad's actions.

The Pursuit Force have received new additions this time round, each being as clichéd as possible. The black, soul-infused member of the group, Preach, fights alongside you with brute strength. His voice actor has been watching too many Samuel L. Jackson movies though, as the accent is so forced that it becomes maddening. The same can be said for the stuck up American driver Gage, and the Mexican agent Ashley, who specialises in jumping. Add onto this every single gang member of each of the game's four gangs, with the British syndicate standing out as the worst offenders, with references to Margaret Thatcher emphasising how the developers can actually use the stereotypes to their advantage! This adds to the fun nature of the game, with the whole thing not taking itself too seriously, which saves the game from becoming laughable.

The Story mode is split into four acts, each of which feature six to eight missions. This may seem like a huge number of missions, but in reality each one lasts no longer than ten minutes and so you can get through a whole act in one go, although the chances are you'll become stuck on a troublesome level and have to come back to it later. This makes the story mode seem larger than it actually is, something that the game can be credited for, making it feel like a full blown campaign rather than a bunch of detached missions. Along with the story mode, and as you progress through the missions, you can play through any stage again in Bounty mode. Here you fulfil the necessary objectives of the missions while trying to earn points that will eventually let you earn stars, which can then be spent in the shop, unlocking bonus content. This works well as a system and means that replaying the tougher levels is rewarding rather than annoying. There is also a Mission mode, which changes the objectives you're given in a mission, usually making the stage much harder. This isn't as much fun as bounty mode, but you can't complain about the extra content. By far the most substantial option on the menu screen though, save for story mode, is the multiplayer. Sadly this isn't online - there's only Ad-Hoc play available - which reduces the appeal considerably. What is here though is excellent, with plenty of options to get stuck into. You can play in one of four modes of play, with up to four players. Rampage sees players fighting each other on foot, with the other three options taking place on vehicles. Ram Jam has cops on the tail of escaping criminals, while Survivor has a team working together to achieve a similar goal and Cops 'n' Robbers is a battle between players, with one being the Cop, and the other the Escapee. All of these modes play as well as the main game, with few hiccups in the experience. The Cops 'n' Robbers mode is possibly the most fun, only because of the competitive nature of the mode; you'll have endless debates over who gets to be the criminals! Once again, Extreme Justice stands above most handheld games by having just as much content as a console game. In this field, the game has no competition on the PSP - if only all handheld games gave this much value for money.

There are three main types of gameplay, with each usually appearing in every mission you undertake. The most important of these types is the actual pursuit aspect where you commandeer one of a variety of vehicles to chase after the enemy, although each plays and feels exactly the same. The driving here is great, as it has been made to rely less on precision and more on just enjoyment. The vehicles all feel loose rather than an effort to control and so avoiding enemy gunfire and jumping onto their cars is more important than staying in a straight line. The jumping element of the chase makes the chases that much more intense - with a quick press of circle you're on top of an enemy's bike/jet ski/truck and you're shooting at them through the windscreen, if there is one. You find a balance between jumping and shooting enemies as you progress, giving you the sense of domination that the Pursuit Force would have.

When you're not in a vehicle, you're either infiltrating an area on foot or scaling an object to defeat a boss. The first of these is controlled differently to most third person games on the PSP, with your movement and view controlled entirely by the analog nub. This would make defeating foes annoying if it wasn't for the excellent targeting system; shoot at an enemy and most likely a targeting circle will appear around them. Keep shooting at them and they will die - something that can happen to you too. You can also use melee attacks, performed through a series of buttons that appear onscreen. If you find quick time events annoying then this is least of your worries, as the boss battles here are just that - even if sometimes there aren't any cues for what button to press. These epic set pieces are the best part of the game and often involve many sections that make the battle. You often only use two buttons in these fights - R to shoot and Square to dodge an attack. This is the case with the end of the first act, which sees you on top of an aeroplane mid-flight. You must hold on as you approach the door that the boss emerges from, while dodging his attacks constantly. I actually forgot I was playing a handheld game at this point, which is an achievement in itself. They may be glorified quick time events, but they sure are brilliant fun to play.

Linearity can be the death of a great game, or the saviour of a wayward one. But linear is another word that can describe the whole Extreme Justice experience; from the linear nature of the progression in story mode to the linear on-foot sections to the linear driving sections - you get the picture. I'm quite sure that when the police are chasing a wayward prison escapee, they never have huge flashing arrows pointing them in the right direction, but then, the Pursuit Force aren't the police. This ends up being the one way to keep the action constant, something that makes the game stand out; if you could get lost then the whole point of you controlling a car chase would be lost, so you learn to overlook this aspect of the gameplay. This doesn't stop the progression of the story mode from feeling linear though, as even though a small choice is given to you, they have little impact on the events. This isn't a major flaw and is far from a game breaker, but the tease that you get of making a choice doesn't help you feel like commander of this troop of crime fighters.

Extreme Justice looks like a decent PS2 game - there is no denying it. The textures may not be perfectly smooth but when the game is ported to the PSP's older brother later this year there won't be a visible difference. In motion the game looks brilliant, with vehicles that don't look chunky or out of place. The graphics can only be described as amazing, although the same can't be said for the cut scenes. Why the developers didn't use the in-game engine for these is beyond me, as the smoothed off characters lose all sense of human nature when these scenes occur. After Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow raised the bar with PSP cutscenes, these look sloppy in comparison. The music and sound effects are nearly as good as the graphics, the soundtrack adding to the energetic pace of the game. The explosions are nicely done, while gunshots can become drilled in your head. All of the weapons seem to sound the same, although this isn't noticeable above the screeches of the cars. All in all, Extreme Justice is a great showcase for the PSP on both graphical and audio fronts.

Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is a high-octane, lighthearted, linear game and it's a must play for every PSP owner. Most importantly, the game is fantastic fun to play, using every section of its large amount of modes to make you enjoy every moment. It may not be serious, but it is so over the top that you'll love it for not trying to be realistic, while Extreme Justice surpasses the original in every way, even though the basis of the gameplay is very similar. Few PSP look good as this, and at a bargain price point it hits all the right buttons, with style, justifying your forceful pursuit of a purchase extremely well!

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).