One-Trick Pony

Y ou don't have to wonder much if "Stranglehold" is Asian-centric. Let's see. The action takes place in neon Hong Kong. One of your goals is to collect paper cranes for no good reason. And you're often taunted by a Hong Kong flute sound. This is a bit of a stereotype in stereo.

The game is officially titled "John Woo Presents Stranglehold," because it's based on characters from John Woo's 1992 action flick "Hard-Boiled." So the game is a sequel to a movie, and Chow Yun Fat stars in both. That's how the film-to-gaming universe spins lately, as anyone who has played a Vin Diesel game knows. (Vin Diesel movies: bad. Vin Diesel games: good.)

"Stranglehold" is a one-trick pony, but sometimes it's fun to ride a one-trick pony. The fun trick of "Stranglehold" is you must do the same thing over and over: Press a few buttons to kill thousands of baddies. But the killing methodology is intriguing and paced well enough to keep it from feeling like a sluggish donkey ride.

Our hero from Hong Kong to Chicago is Inspector Tequila. He drinks, he smokes, he kills. He's a sin tax with legs.

Tequila also slides across things. You can't stop this cat from scurrying his butt over kitchen counters and tabletops, or running up and down stair rails. These surfaces appear everywhere. And merely pressing the joystick near a room service cart forces Tequila to skimmer atop its surface. (Who knew Hong Kong alleys are riddled with room service carts?)

There are two good reasons for this surface surfing. First, it's harder for mob dudes to shoot you if you're gliding about. Second, the game goes into slow motion during such scenes, so you can aim precisely at heads, hearts and groins. (Ouchy.)

Its cool gun features are reminiscent of my two favorite solo-mission shooters of all time, "Red Dead Revolver" and "Max Payne." Most fun of all, you sometimes enter standoff showdowns, where you try to dodge super-duper slow-mo bullets traveling at your face while you simultaneously try to aim at your opponent's eyeballs.

But as I said, this becomes a one-trick pony, and it's a short, easy ride. If you're moderately talented, it can end in fewer than 10 hours.

Story lines come with cinematic scenes, but they're dumb. And rogues operate under the mistaken impression their bullets will hurt you. Little do they know you have the ability to outlive many, many bullet holes. If you do get blasted too much, you can walk up to almost any wall and find a first aid kit that immediately heals all wounds. How magical.

I'd give the game a better review if only it were twice as long, or if the online multiplayer weren't limited to a maximum of six people waiting for short, sad rounds to begin.

All in all, it's worth a few hours, if only to see how you interact with random objects littering streets and buildings. In fact, I think I just set a watermelon on fire then sat down on a basket of bananas on a room service cart in an alley. That's pretty cool; also, a waste of watermelon and bananas.

("John Woo Presents Stranglehold" retails for $60 for Xbox 360; and launches for $60 on Tuesday for PS 3 -- Plays fun but short, and the online play is disappointing. Looks great. Easy to moderately challenging. Rated "M" for blood, drug references, intense violence. Three stars out of four.)