In the realm of gaming, though, Ghost in the Shell has been rather hit-or-miss. Long ago, longer than I'd like to admit, Exact and THQ conspired to bring us Ghost in the Shell on PSOne, an action-shooter that, in the tradition of Ghost in the Shell, turned out to be a cult-classic. Unfortunately, Bandai and Cavia's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on the PS2 didn't fare so well, widely criticized for its short length and initially-awkward controls. This time around, Bandai's snatched up the latest collaboration between Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and G-artists, a fun but somewhat flawed first-person shooter that ends up much like its predecessor.

Per most Ghost in the Shell projects, the production values here are quite impressive. Voice acting is everywhere, in the mission briefings, in the missions themselves, in the cutscenes following the missions, and I don't think there's one bit of dialog that isn't voiced. More importantly, this voice acting is good, the same cast used for the dubs of the television series and films. Those cutscenes, by the way, are rendered entirely in-game with the character models looking nice, especially since this is a PSP game. Sometimes the character animation is a bit stiff, or the lips don't sync up properly, but that's a minor quibble.

Control, always an important factor in a first-person shooter, take a bit of getting used to here. Eight schemes are offered to accommodate most players, but oddly, there's no option to un-invert the aiming. After testing each scheme, I found a variation of the default, which mapped movement to the d-pad and weapon switching/lock on/weapon pickup on the analog stick to be my favorite, and soon I became quite effective at aiming with the square, circle, triangle and X buttons.

Across six chapters and over twenty missions, players are tasked with a variety of objectives, including the placement of timebombs, stunning a key witness, searching through trash cans, and escorting certain characters to safety. Though the objectives remain mixed, the overall gameplay is little more than sighting an enemy in your general view and using the lock-on system to keep them in your sights until you've filled them with lead. Then again, that's just the nature of the genre.

Accompanying your character throughout the game is a fully-customizable Tachikoma (a spider-esque tank) partner, which provides both the game's greatest source of amusement and frustration. Decking out your Tachikoma with weaponry on every appendage and watching them clear out an entire room of baddies is quite satisfying, and their quips during and after missions are generally amusing and often hilarious. And unless you're in the midst of an escort mission, you can typically hop in them for direct control.

The problem here is that though you can set the Tachikoma's movement and firing behaviors, you can't give them specific orders. So if your Tachikoma is running low on health, you can't command them to seek out more, and if they pass by a health container, it's often ignored. Early on, it's a simple solution of assuming direct control of the robot and guiding them over the pickup, but you can't do that in the later escort missions or in the midst of a frantic firefight. As a result, you may end up frustratingly repeating a few sections until you've got the section mastered and enemy placement memorized.

Though the game offers four playable characters, there was only one instance I felt advantaged by my chosen character's skill. For the most part, each character feels just like the next, the biggest difference being the shift in dialog during cutscenes. The only real source of replay value would be the bonus weapons awarded by finding and destroying the small, yellow robot in each stage. Unfortunately, that's not much of a replay incentive, so the five to seven hours most spend blazing through Ghost in the Shell's single player campaign will likely be the bulk of their time with the title.

Multiplayer is also available, supporting up to four players, requiring each to have a PSP and a copy of the game. Due to these technicalities, I was unable to test out the multiplayer modes. However, due to the nature of the lock-on system, I would assume that the gameplay here would be more dependant upon the power of your weapon than your actual skill.

Despite its flaws, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is still an enjoyable title. The varied objectives and story-driven gameplay help to keep things interesting, as does the whole AI-partner mechanic, but at heart, it's just a bit too short and lacks the replay value to recommend as a purchase. Fans of Ghost in the Shell, or those just looking for something amusing to fill a few hours, should definitely check this out, but not as anything more than a rental or budget-priced buy.