Get ready to slip on some virtual spandex and take to the streets fighting crime as a dorky comic book fan turned superhero teen in Kick-Ass. Based on the movie and comic book of the same name,Kick-Ass will be a downloadable action-based fighting game from PlayStation Network. The story is about Dave Lizewski, a high school student that brings to life every fanboy’s dream of becoming a superhero; at the Game Developers Conference, I watched as players inKick-Ass the game, did so, too.

Following the story of the movie, there are three main playable characters: Kick-Ass, Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Each character has individual strengths and characteristics. For example, Hit Girl has guns and grenades.

The game starts with a cinematic of Kick-Ass going out to fight crime and getting his own ass kicked in the process. Clearly there’s a bit of a learning curve when becoming a superhero. Lucky for us, he tries again, beginning your journey into awesomeness with a light tutorial to teach you the various moves, combos and chain attacks.

Though it is primarily a third-person action fighter, Kick-Ass does have some light role-playing game elements, such as experience points, side quests and mana attacks. One side quest we were told about involves rescuing kitties. Sorry, but there are no huge and terrible monsters to slay. This is real life, after all.

One thing I really like in games is a destructible environment. I like virtual destruction. It happens. In Kick-Ass, there is some light environmental interaction, which is good. You can find health by breaking open crates (classic, I think), and you can set fire to the environment in some levels. You’ll have to be careful, though, because the environment can hurt you. I don’t necessarily like this, but it does add to the realism and makes sense. In another level, one of the bad guys was dropping cars on the characters. The shadow of the car would appear before it came crashing down, which made it easier to dodge the cars.

Kick-Ass is single-player or local and online two-player co-op. The main difference with co-op is that you’ll get more bad guys to beat up. It’s not splitscreen, though, which seems natural for the game, but I do tend to prefer splitscreen. You’ll also have a choice of difficulty: Normal or Extreme. There are three main bosses and many mini-bosses you’ll have to defeat. There is also an Arena mode, which will send you wave after wave of bad guys.

The sound in Kick-Ass seems like it will be pretty straight-forward, but the music ... the music is indeed kick-ass. Just listening to “The Banana Splits” theme by The Dickies when Hit Girl was on screen, made me want to start throwing stuff. It was good.

Overall, Kick-Ass looks like a fun movie tie-in game for PSN. It’s rated M — primarily for the violence. You’ll see a lot of blood, and there’s the occasional decapitation. It’s definitely not for the younger crowd, but I don’t think it’s something teens shouldn’t be allowed to play — as long as they don’t plan on following suit and attempting to fight crime in real life, too. Look for Kick-Ass to be available April 29. If you can’t wait to start kicking ass, check out the version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which should be available.