Fantastic 4

"After a series of good movie and comic book tie-in games, this one's just...well you'll have to see."

If you read the tagline, you're waiting for a word. Here it is.
FANTASTIC!
Surprisingly, this is yet another game in a string of tie-ins that have been actually good! Fantastic 4, Star Wars Episode III, Batman Begins...what's going on here? Since when are movie games any good?!!

GRAPHICS: 8/10
The characters all look like their actor counterparts. Well, at least the characters that have actor counterparts. Anywho, the environments all are destructible and you get a surprising amount of variation in them. You could be in a subway station, on the streets, in a hospital, or on distant planets. They all look incredibly realistic. The only thing I gotta say is that the characters in-game look way different from the cut-scene ones. While I'm at it, the cut-scenes are fantastic (overused pun, I know). The other gripe is that some of the powers don't look right. The fire from the Human Torch isn't flowing. You'd think with today's technology, we'd get that. Regardless, this is a fairly good area.

SOUND: 9/10
They did get all the voice actors from the movie (taking a hint, Star Wars Ep. III?), and got other good actors to help out, like Dustin Hoffman! They're all very good at acting their parts too. The sound effects are pretty good, but get kind of boring kind of quick. The music is all pretty much tone-setting. Nothing outstanding, but still it works. The reason I'm giving this area such a high score is because the voice-acting is superb. Otherwise, it's still a good area, but some tweaks would have sold me for sure.

STORY: 10/10
Seven Studios did a really good job at not only using the movie's storyline to the fullest, but they added a ton of stuff from the comics that people might not know about. The game features more than just Dr. Doom as a villain, like in the movie. They added the Mole Man (YYYYEEEESSSSSS!!!!!), Horus, and Puppet Master, just to name a few. The story itself is original, considering it was first thought up in the '50s. There are a few funny parts as well. All in all, this story does what it sets out to do: go by the movie and then some.

GAME-PLAY: 7/10
Ouch. After those areas were all above average, this one isn't. This game's core play is all a rip-off of X-Men Legends. You can play as all 4 people, or any combination of 1 or 2. No 3. Only 1,2, or 4. What the heck? Why can't you play as 3? Here's the team in a nutshell: Mr. Fantastic can stretch really far (like rubber), Invisible Woman can...well do I have to explain it? The Human Torch can...again do I have to explain it? Finally, the Thing is the powerhouse, super strength and a rock hard body (literally). You basically use them to beat up endless amounts of enemies, with a few simple puzzles here and there. You can play single-player or do co-op, but again, we saw it with X-Men Legends too, and they did a heck of a better job with it than this. Combos take longer to set up here than in X-Men, You could play with 3 people in X-Men! The camera angles are a pain here, but not in X-Men. The puzzles are tougher in this one, I'll give Fantastic 4 that. Don't get me wrong here, it's still a very fun game, but I wish they could have done something more original with the franchise. Heck, they could have done a ton of things better with it. Kind of a disappointment here.

OVERALL:
While the game-play is very flawed, it's still very fun, and all the extra unlockables and great other areas of this game make this one worth it.
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
RECAP:
+Cut-scenes are FANTASTIC (Again, stupid pun, I get it)
+Smashable environments (Te he)
+Voice acting outstanding
+Music works well
+Story expands the movie greatly, and does good job of it
+Good variation on puzzles and fighting
+Tons of unlockables
+Fun multi-player
-In-game characters really look worse than cut-scenes
-Sound effects get old
-All of the game-play we saw in X-Men Legends
-And done better there too.
-Camera angles are true pain
-Can't play with 3 of the 4! (WTF?)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/05