The Incredibles

"Great game; Bad storyline; too hard"

The Incredibles was a decent game with few faults. The game focuses on multiple characters, but you'll know who the main character really is after you play through the game. The game is lined with complicated, intricate puzzles; exactly the kind anyone can have fun with. Playing the game itself was actually what I liked the most. I was only disappointed in the unimportant to gameplay parts like storyline, where they really went wrong. Where I was disappointed was with the characters' amount of gameplay. The characters play basically this much:

Mr. Incredible: 70%
Elastigirl: 20%
Dash: 8%
Violet: 2%

As you can see, the more fun characters are only appearing a couple of times. Violet only does a cameo one level. Dash has three. The incrediball level could be considered one of Violets as well, but really it's just a slow paced Dash level with a cheap way to kill the henchmen. The other place they went wrong with level placement was putting a stealth stage in the middle. I think I can accurately speak for all of us when I say that nobody likes stealth levels. If there's anyone that does, they certainly wouldn't be playing this game. That was a major screwup. Also, the game was extremely hard. There were some points where I found it impossible (not hard, impossible) to beat without cheating. Although the cheats are a nice add-in, there should be no point where there is no alternative to cheating. I haven't beaten the game yet, but I've found everything along the way to the third last level was unnecessarily hard. Difficulty can provide challenge and challenge can be fun, but it's gone too far with difficulty if you can mathematically figure out that a part is impossible. Another place they went wrong is with the storyline. The storyline of the game is extremely different from the movie. It never explains Syndrome, for instance. He's just a red-haired guy that throws explosives at people. Operation Kronos is never really explained either. They just jump into it without any of the detail shown in the movie. The clips from the movie were great, but sometimes it seems like this game was whipped up overnight to make a quick buck. To summarize, I think the game would be better if they had the playtime better spread out among the characters, given Dash and Violet a better way to beat the bad guys and added other characters like Frozone. I give it an 8/10 over all.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
These were detailed enough to get through the game and know what everything is. I don't personally care too much about graphics; I believe that what makes a game is storyline and gameplay.

PLOT: 1.5/10
The clips from the movie were great; good graphics, good sound quality, but lacking one thing. Content. They did not explain several important things from the plot. That's alright if you've seen the movie, but if you haven't, your pretty much screwed unless you know someone who has.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10
The controls were easy to latch on to, the things you have to do are explained well enough, but the game is too hard. This comes from someone who likes a challenge, but at points, even cheating, you'll take a good 10 minutes to beat it. This game is extremely overdone in some places (i.e. puzzles, bosses).

LEVELS: 7/10
Three really bad levels are Dash's first two and Violet's only. These levels are hard, badly done and just not fun. These, however, did not impact my good rating on the levels with Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl.

CHARACTERS: 6.5/10
These were good in some places but bad in others. Quick summary: Dash (short levels, boring and easy to get killed, plus the clock doesn't reset if you die) Violet (only one level, easily killed, depends merely on invisibility). Elastigirl is a well done character as you can throw quikly with her, swing across larger gaps, and hit long range bomb or laser gun enemies. Mr. Incredible is extremely well done. He can pick up items and throw them later. He's much more powerful than other characters and you fight the majority of bosses with him. The only ones that should give you any trouble are Omnidroids 08, 09, and 10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/13/05