"Not quite a wet dream, more like a soggy one."

Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis is mediocre. It's not bad, but it really isn't that good either. The main problem this game has is that it's just plain old boring. This game had a lot of potential, and with a few minor tweaks, it could have been awesome.

Graphics- Smooth and crisp graphics are a plus. The underwater environment looks cool and swimming around provides entertainment. Everything is detailed, but not as much as I would have liked.

Gameplay- Basically, you swim underwater to a set of predetermined locations and beat a bunch of people up. You can only fight them one at a time and you do this by entering a combat screen where the camera zooms in and Aquaman strafes instead of swims. The combat is slow and uncreative. For some enemies you can just tap the punch button over and over and be successful while others require minimal strategy. Also included in the game are ship levels. During these you fly around in a little tiny ship and shoot at enemies. The enemies are endless and you have to usually do something specific to end it; be it protecting a base for a certain period of time or destroying a particular ship. Playing as Aquaman is ridiculously easy and the ship missions are impossibly difficult. You don't get specific instructions on how to complete your mission, so you're forced to use more of a guess and shoot method. But despite all of the flaws in gameplay, it still manages to be a fun experience. You just have to kind of ignore all of the problems, but a few do get in the way of some fun.

Controls- The controls are difficult in this game and the movements are choppy. Swimming is difficult to get used to and the combat is slow paced. There are a variety of combos and attacks you can get and perform on enemies, but you find yourself using them less and less as you keep playing. Playing the ship missions is pretty easy to do, but still requires a lot of practice.

Story- Pretty predictable. The city is under attack and Aquaman sets out to go beat up the baddies. The cutscenes between missions are shown as comic book pages and are increasingly boring. You find yourself not even reading them after a while.

Should you buy it?- Although this review might make the game seem bad, I would suggest getting it. I got it for a cheap 8 bucks and I still pop it in and play it every once in a while.

Pros

+Nice graphics
+ Enjoyable
+Interesting premise

Cons

-Everything else >_>

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/07

Game Release: Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (US, 07/23/03)