Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

"Booooooooringgggggg"

First off, I never liked the Fantastic 4 growing up. I was a fan of things like Power Rangers, TMNT, or my all time favourite; X-Men. Needless to say, when games like X-Men legends came out, I was thrilled with the inventive gameplay, and completely new approach to the otherwise terrible Marvel games. So when I came across the game while chillin' like a villain at Blockbuster I thought, "I hated the movie, but who knows, game could be fun." It takes a real man's man to admit he was wrong, and well...I was wrong. I can usually get through a game even if I don't particularly enjoy it, but I never came close to finishing this steaming pile of *exploitive deleted* Anyways, here's the rundown.

Graphics: 6/10

Nothing too special. Doesn't really compare to most 360 games on the market nowadays, but it certainly is a step-up from any last gen games. Not much design to many levels, and they got extremely repetitive. I almost quit on the first level because I ended up running through the same hallway system fighting the same guys doing the same combos about 10 times in a row before the level finally ended. Although decent enough on the eyes, incredible lack of imagination nets this a 6.

Sound: 7/10

Decent voice-overs but a kind of poor overall sound effect to the game. The enemies are restricted to only a couple of grunts, so the fights have the exact same sounds playing again and again as a bad guy yells in pain. No really pieces stood in my mind, and had a very bland overall feeling.

Controls: 4/10

They took a step away from what most games do in the fact that they changed jump (usually A) to Y, and A is now a weak attack. I wasn't really a big fan of the new controls, and mixed up the buttons every 2 seconds. There were absolutely no combinations in the game except X-X-X-X, or A-A-A-A. No such thing as X-X-A-X-A or anything that MIGHT have spiced it up a bit, so atleast some battles seem like something is actually going on. All I ended up doing in any fight was to switch to The Thing and throw all the enemies off the edge. When there was no edge, I just used the fist smash to clear everyone out.

Story: 8/10

I haven't, and won't, go see the movie in theatres, but from what I've seen and heard about the film, it follows it pretty well. Of course, it adds a couple things to the story that weren't in the movie for effect such as bosses and enemies, which has to be done in any game so that you actually have something to fight. The storyline itself isn't all too abd either, which isn't just the standard 'save the world' plot. It tries to atleast add a few more things to not completely rehash every other hero title. It was enough to net an 8.

Gameplay: 1.5/10

This is where this game really died. It follows the X-Men Legends genre, so you'd think it would try to take everything X-Men Legends had, except add more to make it better, or change a couple features around. Well, the game designers must have thought it would be cool to see what a game would be like if they modeled it towards X-Men Legends, but then take away some of the best features. I rented it knowing that the range of characters was reduced down to 4, so maybe the designers could make up with it by adding a huge number of sweet moves so it doesn't feel like you're doing the same battle over and over again. In Legends, if you get bored of your peeps, you go change them into a completely new, different party, with completely custimizationability(I just made up a word) In Fantastic 4, you get 4 characters from the start, with 4 moves from the start, and absolutely NO custimization. You can make the powers you get stronger, but they will always be the same, boring attack. With no combinations either, you end up doing the same attacks. The game just does nothing to try and keep you hooked. Each level might seem nice at first, but the entire levels are completely repetitive with only a few kind of baddies. The game took everything from Legends that made it pretty freakin' sweet, and then took it away. It was crappy enough to net itself a 1.5.

So all in all.

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Controls: 4/10
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 1.5/10

Overall: 3/10

This game stunk. End of story. I didn't find anything really enjoyable about this game at all. I was reminded why I was never a fan of Fantastic 4 or anything, and they were completely successful in ruining Silver Surfer while doing it. When did he team up with Fantastic 4 in the comics? Overall, an extremely poor effort, with 0 replayability, completely repetitive environments and battles, no custimization, and 4 lame characters. I wouldn't recommend it for a rental or buy. However, you might be able to coax any store to put the CD in the microwave. That would definitely be a lot more enjoyable.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07