Disney's Hercules Action Game

"One of Disney's better work, but still pales in comparison"

Hercules is a game worthy of recognition, despite of the fact that it was made by Disney Interactive, a company not exactly known for their successful accomplishments in turning good movies in games, games that are underdeveloped and poor in structure. Hercules, however, is an exceptional exception to that fact, it is actually quite enjoyable, even entertaining. Either way, it is a game definitely worth of your attention, at least part of it, especially if you are a Disney fan or someone who is just looking for some simple, old fashioned fun.

Gameplay – Hercules gameplay is quite average. There are levels that you must compete, but the bad thing is that you cannot save in the middle of them, even when you complete a level, resulting in, unfortunately, replaying a levels every time you turn your Playstation on. This can get very exhausting, but if you are willing to put up with that annoyance and set aside a piece of your time to play, you will find things that is actually worth setting aside your valuable time for.
Each level of Hercules has a main objective. The first one is mainly a tutorial, except without the instructions, teaching you how to perform certain actions and daring you to get all of the 8 letters that spell out Hercules. You must run through the levels. Set in certain parts of the level will be a trick, you must find out how to do something that might be hard to figure out, but there’s always a solution to a problem.
There will be enemies, and you will get hurt and perhaps killed by them. If you get killed, you must start at the beginning of the level all over again, and if you run out of lives, you must start at the beginning all over again.
There are solutions to the saving problem, though. If I remember correctly, Hercules has a password system that allows you to continue from a certain level at a certain point. I think that it gives out the password for every 5 levels. That lessens the saving problem, but does not completely wipe it away because if you happen to die within any of the fives levels, you will still have to start from the last 5 level all over again. That can get tiring and repetitive after a while, and that is one of the major disadvantages of Hercules.
The controls of Hercules is pretty basic, although there are special attacks such as the Charged Up Punch or the Lighting Sword. Basically, you just jump, punch, and destroy the obstacles in your way.

Rating – 7/10

Graphics – The graphics are quite good for a game set on the Playstation console. The background almost has no details, but the scenery makes up for that. The graphics could be a little better, but I hold no grudge against it. After all, this game was made quite a few years ago, and the graphics are considered moderate or even good.

Rating – 6/10

Sound: The music can get tiring and boring, and when that happens, you’ll probably want to crank the volume down and play with mute on, but the noises you make are okay. It is at least partly realistic, and you have a noise for almost every single one of your actions. You can hear it when Hercules is gathering energy for a super punch, when you are punching an especially tough pillar, or when you are using that collectible lighting sword of yours. Overall, the sound’s not too shabby, but not great either.

Rating: 6/10

Replayability – Well, replaying this thing is a must, so I’m not sure if this category is proper or not. You’re going to have to at least replay a couple of levels, but the developers made it specially so that you do not get too bored when dealing with the same, too easy scenario over and over again because you run out of lives before you can reach that certain checkpoint.

Difficulty – Hercules is a pretty easy games, except in a few cases such as the second level when Hercules run through an obstacle nonstop and the only thing you can do it steer or jump out of the way. You can’t punch, you can’t slow down, you have no control except for jumping and dodging, which is limited considering the huge amounts of obstacles in your way.

Overall, Hercules is worth a rent, it’s not as shabby as you think it is. For all of the Disney fans out there, I would not recommend buying this game, it gets boring after a while. Although it might seem good at first, appearances can be deceiving, Hercules is a game that has many flaws, worthy of a rent, not worthy of a buy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/03, Updated 04/04/03