A SURPRISINGLY GOOD READ FOR THE JOYSTICK GENERATION.

Byline: Redmond Carolipio Staff Writer

Summer is a good time to catch up on reading. Even if it's on a handheld screen.

Instead of cozying up with a good book, PlayStation Portable owners get a chance to dive into ``Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel,'' an intriguing take on the concept of the comic book.

This isn't a game in the typical sense. As the title indicates, it's an interactive graphic novel, which means it's like reading a comic book on screen, but the experience is spiced up with some animation, sound effects and music.

Readers get an artistic treatment of the original ``Metal Gear Solid'' for the PlayStation. Many look at that game as the mainstream coming-out party for mulleted mega-soldier Solid Snake and director Hideo Kojima. It was many gamers' first taste of Kojima's brand of storytelling -- layers of lengthy, intricate dialogue laced within smart, stylish action and cinema sequences.

One of the things that stood out to me about the ``MGS'' series is its ``gang of freaks''approach to its villains. Each central bad guy carries at least one unearthly skill, be it the ability to control minds or impeccable aim with a six-shooter.

The digital graphic novel format lets both fans and those new to the series see the story and all of its characters in an artsy light.

You'll see characters slide across the occasional panel, or bubbles move in an underwater sequence, but nothing over the top. The re-creations of the battles are actually pretty riveting, now that they're free of the human error that sometimes mires the drama.

Seeing the characters as still drawings as opposed to animated figures also adds an extra dimension to them -- Ocelot seems more menacing, Snake is more intense, and Dr. Naomi Hunter is, well, blazing hot.

Like any book, the ``player'' can flip back and forth through pages and progress through the story at his or her own pace. You're also able to bookmark pages so you can pick up where you left off.

There are some nifty game-like elements in ``MGS: DGN,'' most of which deal with finding hidden content. For instance, there's a ``mental scan'' mode, which gives the reader the ability to ``scan'' pages for stuff like character bios, plot points or bits of history.

You can play around with these little nuggets of information in ``memory building simulation mode,'' where the player attempts to ``link'' all of them together in an effort to build a cohesive library of material.

How much you get out of this depends a lot on how into the series you are. If you worship at the altar of Kojima, then you'll have no problem scanning hundreds of pages for goodies. If you just like comics, you might enjoy what this approach would mean for future series and characters down the road.

No matter your tastes, remember that it IS summertime, which means there won't be too many games worth a lot of your time. For $20, ``Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel'' is a worthy literary distraction.

Redmond Carolipio, [phone]

redmond.carolipio(at)sbsun.com

METAL GEAR SOLID: DIGITAL GRAPHIC NOVEL - Three stars

Platform: PlayStation Portable.

Rated: M for Mature (blood, and you see someone in her underwear).

In a nutshell: Time to read a good video game.