Fantastic 4

"Good for a movie license but far from Fantastic"

The odds are really set against you if you're out to make a great video game out of a movie, cartoon or comic book license. I tend to recoil from those titles like poisonous cobras when I see them on the shelves. I rented Fantastic Four with pretty low expectations despite being a huge fan of the comics and enjoying the movie and while better than expected, it's still far from fantastic.

The story, for the most part, follows the course of the movie, complete with cool cutscenes featuring some top-notch voice acting. What's neat, though, is we actually see some villains from the comics such as Mole Man and Diablo, which was a real treat for a geek like me. Accordingly, we get to visit some pretty varying locales, which was also reminiscent of the adventure/explorer feel of the comics. This also brings me to my first gripe though.

We venture from Doom's lab to the mean streets of New York to Mole Man's subterranean lair to the jungles of Central America but none of the visuals really impressed me. I realize they were trying to capture the realistic feel of the motion picture but a more energetic, exaggerated and colorful world would've drawn me in more. Neither the design of the characters or their environments are worth mentioning, including that of our four heroes. The bad guys were mostly forgettable and, when there were different types, hardly indistinguishable from one another. Aside from Mole Man's Monster, I have to take effort to even remember what the other level bosses looked like. While the graphics get the job done (nothing looks fake, pixilated or boxy) they don't really stand out either—a disappointment for a game with so much potential for really dynamic visuals. Same goes for the sound, really. The music is generic if not outright boring (you mostly just forget it's there) and the punches or fireballs are lacking any real audible emphasis. Once you get used to the combo system, the controls and everything are solid, except for the camera, which sometimes wonks you around, but it isn't too frequent.

For the most part, you'll find yourself walking around beating up people with your three-hit-combo or your special attack. You also get a super move a bit later on but most of the guys you face aren't really tough enough to encourage you to take advantage of your varying attacks (I even forgot there were jump and block buttons). Most of the time your regular attack works just fine, turning the game into a button-masher, which wouldn't be a problem if the gameplay itself was more fast-paced or exciting. You can earn points by accomplishing mission goals (such as not losing a life in a level) which can be used to purchase new combos and upgrade your special moves but, again, you're not challenged enough to want to capitalize on this, so any depth this might've added is lost. There's also neat little “mini games” involving each character's unique powers that help you bypass minor obstacles. While I applaud the effort, the movements (such as tapping a button or rotating the analog stick) are simple enough to be part of the normal gameplay. The way the mini-games are presented here, they only break up the action.

If you've played level 1, you've played them all and aside from the story, there's nothing to encourage you to go keep slogging through, even with the uninteresting upgrade system. At the beginning of level 3, I was groaning the way someone does when they almost beat a level and have to start all the way over from the beginning. The four player element probably makes Fantastic Four worth renting (I only managed to get one buddy to play) as the chaos of four of your pals on the screen would probably bring more excitement to the dull gameplay but otherwise it's sort of a sleeper and far from fantastic.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/05