50 Cent: Bulletproof - PS2

Anyone doubting the supremacy of 50 Cent as a gangster rapper need only look at his album covers – even without the emphatic inkings that adorn the cover of The Massacre, it’s quite clear that he is an extremely muscly man. And as LL Cool J teaches us, it is right and appropriate for a rapper to be well muscled.

Equally important are a rapper’s credentials if he wants to break into the mainstream. Hip-hop fans may happily listen to what the whitest, skinniest, least threatening MCs have to say, but the world at large is a more discerning place. It definitely appears to help if you are a bullet-scarred ex-crack dealer. 50 is just that, and he’s done brilliantly as a result of his brutal, yet bankable past. But in these days of media miscegenation, simply settling for making a few platinum records isn’t maximising your potential – you have to branch out.

It’s in this entrepreneurial spirit that 50 Cent has put his name to just such a crossbreed by Vivendi Universal. 50 Cent: Bulletproof gives the leader of G-Unit’s many fans the chance to step into his Timberlands and buy into his mystique.

The game mixes a little fact with a whole lot of fiction. 50 was famously shot nine times, and it is from this life-changing point that the game also starts. But instead of getting signed by Dr. Dre and building a rap empire, our recovered hero elects to take the battle to the streets. With G-Unit comrades Tony Yayo, Young Buck and Craig David lookalike Lloyd Banks by his sinewy side, he takes on New York’s biggest gangs, uncovering a global conspiracy. Real life friends Eminem and Dr. Dre also turn up playing parts in the drama that unfolds.

Controlling Mr. Cent, you’ll be able to execute exciting combat moves and build up an arsenal of weaponry. The real pay-off for fans comes with the news that the game contains more than a dozen G-Unit videos and four CDs worth of music. An interesting licensed version of the well-defined gangster-em’-up genre. more