In the best case scenarios, these projects are given to the development team that possesses a strong passion for the source material, who understand not only how to translate it into video game form, but how to make it fun. In the real world, however, development teams are usually chosen by two factors: time and money. Whoever can get the game completed by the deadline with the least amount of funds spent generally gets the job. Though I wasn't privy to the negotiations regarding the Fear Factor license, the letter grade to the right of this column should help to indicate what camp I believe Fear Factor: Unleashed falls into.

On paper, the idea doesn't sound that offensive. Using the formula from the hit NBC show, participants compete in a variety of extreme stunts. Those that compete poorly or are unable to complete the stunts are eliminated from the group until only one remains. That person, the Fear Factor champion, wins the cash prize. It's the actual execution where the entire concept falls apart.

First off, you'll need to create your character. After choosing their gender and appearance, you'll need to distribute twenty ability points among four different categories - steadiness, nerve, stomach and stamina. After this, your character's phobia will be randomly selected. Truth be told, I created several characters and didn't notice much of a difference between them in gameplay, but it's a nice effort.

The stunts are represented by twelve mini-games, separated into three categories: Gross and Eating, Skill, and Action. The common element throughout each stunt is the Fear Meter, which indicates your character's fright. If they become too scared, they'll freak out and lose the round. To prevent this, players use the L and R triggers to keep the indicator centered. It's a novel idea that serves as a common gameplay element to tie the mini-games together, but it can be distracting and problematic in some challenges.

The mini-games themselves vary wildly in quality, ranging from somewhat decent to downright broken. Of the twelve, two are the exact same game with different graphics, while another two are so broken they're almost unplayable. Regardless of how many Stomach points the character had, I was unable to complete Gross Out Buffet. The stunt, which involves eating a bowl of maggots, would always send my Fear Meter skyrocketing and immediately fail me once my character swallowed, no matter how carefully I balanced the meter or the amount of maggots in their mouth. Hydro Horror, on the other hand, suffers from a horrible control scheme. The goal here is to collect flags as your character is dragged behind a speedboat, but you actually control the speedboat. You must "swing" your character into position by making hard turns, but it's so difficult to maneuver with precision that this ends up more frustrating than entertaining.

The rest of the mini-games are simple to master and present no challenge after the first few plays, except for keeping the Fear Meter balanced. Even with two unlockable difficulty settings, it shouldn't take more than two hours to experience everything the game has to offer.

Once again replicating the formula of the show, Fear Factor: Unleashed shows players their competitor's attempt a challenge. Thankfully, this is skippable, but results in tapping A for 30 seconds to a minute in between bouts of gameplay. There's really no excuse for this in the single player mode.

On top of this all, the game is riddled with bugs. After running through an oil slick, my Go-Kart fell straight through the middle of the track in Verti-Go Kart. In another stunt, my character stood in the air for five seconds before the game realized I'd missed the jump. These only add more frustration to an already tedious experience.

Most of the time, it's possible to recommend a title for a specific group. However with Fear Factor: Unleashed, I really can't suggest the game to anyone outside of diehard Fear Factor fans. Those looking for extreme and outrageous mini-games would be better served looking elsewhere.