The Discovery Channel TV show "American Chopper" is one of the coolest things on the tube right now and should have made for a great video game.

Unfortunately, Activision had no idea how to use this franchise.

The story so far: "American Chopper" is a reality show following a small custom motorcycle shop named Orange County Choppers in New York state that hit the big time. The bikes are hundred-thousand-dollar works of art, but the show has developed a cult following mostly due to the hilarious love-hate relationship between the owner of the shop, Paul Teutul, and his sons, lead designer Paul Jr. and pudgy goofball Mikey.

Activision or, rather, the companys Value Publishing arm, which produced this game, had an interesting premise: let the gamer work in the shop as a new hire and ride some of the shows signature motorcycles.

What went wrong: The short segments in the OCC shop are lame. Theres a handful of generic parts to slap onto a frame. Theres no explanation for why one part is better than another, no price tags to pass along the thrill of squandering a small fortune, and, the most egregious sin of all, very limited dialogue between Paul Sr. and Paul Jr.

Gamers are paying 29 mostly to watch these guys yell and scream and curse at each other, but theres precious little of the histrionics that define the TV show.

And wheres Mikey? That lazy loser is one of the best parts of the show, but hes nowhere to be seen in the game.

On the open road: The segments on the bikes are OK, and some of them are pretty inventive, such as a poker mode, in which players race other bikers to waypoints to get playing cards. When you think you have a strong hand, race back to the starting point to "call."

The wipeouts are also fun to watch, with a Matrix-style rotating camera, but you cant really do any cool stunts or jumps.

But even with all that is wrong with this game, Activision could have placated fans with bonus items on the disk, such as high-resolution photos of OCCs signature choppers, behind-the-scenes video at the shop, or interviews with fans, customers and motorcycle historians.

That may be too tall of an order for the budget division of Activision, but given the popularity of the show, this shouldnt have been a budget game anyway.

Heck, theres more fun at OCCs Web site: OrangeCountyChoppers.com.