Review #772: Fantastic 4

  Has no right being this fun.

 Alright, alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Fantastic 4 is pretty darn mediocre, but considering how movie tie-in games in the era used to fare... that's a good thing. This is an isometric beat'em up game in which you play as the Fantastic 4, in teams of 2(Fantastic 2? Fantastic Duos?) as you go through the movie's storyline as well as a few extra chapters. The game looks like vomit and sounds like garbage, but there's a surprisingly fun beat'em up hidden beneath. Funnily enough, I actually purchased this game by accident, I thought I was purchasing Flame On!

 The game is about 6 stages long, divided in multiple substages each. About 30% of the game follows the plot of the movie, which would've made for an incredibly short game, so they beefed it up adding some villains from the comics, such as Anihilus and the Molemen. Each sub-stage has you playing as a team of two, pre-selected for you, so it's not pick-and-choose. Bosses, however, allow you to play as the entire 4-man team. Stages are mostly about defeating every enemy in the vicinity, but sometimes there are some very light puzzle elements involved, like using Reed as a bridge for his partner to walk through a gap, or breaking walls as The Thing. Very simple.

 A and B are your basic attacks, and sliding your button from the A button to the B button produces another basic attack. R is used to block, L is use to swap between the available characters, the AI taking control of the other character. And yes, they can and will cost you a few lives. Double tapping on the control pad lifts objects, which is pretty much useless since most enemies either rush you or attack from afar, making  throwable objects a hazard on your lifebar. There are two super moves that cost energy: R+A and R+B, and they get automatically upgraded as you advance through the game. Sue Storm has an exclusive move, by double tapping R she can go invisible. There's no involved combo system, however, bashing enemies was surprisingly fun. A few enemies are a bit too annoying for their own good, mostly the projectile-based enemies, but it's not too bad. The only glaring instance of horrible game design would be a section in which you have to turn invisible in order to go through laser walls. The problem being.... you might not tell in time that you need to turn invisible and you might grab the energy crystal with your other character, and if Sue is out of energy... well, you'll have to kill Susan in order to respawn with a full energy bar. Exiting and Entering the room won't respawn the energy crystal.

 This is not a hidden gem, not by any means, but considering I thought this game was gonna be horrifying after looking at it.... well, it's a surprisingly fun beat'em up. It's not a very involved game, or a very deep one, but it's not a horrible way to waste a few minutes of your time.
 5.0 out of 10