Fantastic 4 is the latest feature film to get the game treatment. And while it is certainly better than the Fantastic 4 based games of old, it still remains merely average. Only the truly hardcore fans of the movie and comic book may want to buy this one.

The game looks decent, but definitely isn’t working to compete with any of the best looking games out there or anything. Character and enemy models look decent, and the environments are decent, and there are a decent amount of them. Unfortunately most of them are fairly uninspired (a museum, an underground base etc), but this does fit in with the places scene in the movie. However, there are some major problems with the engine. There are some frame rate issues, which isn’t always noticeable, but players will notice some slowdown every once in awhile. The in-game camera also has some issues, and while you can manually control it with the C-stick at times, often it doesn’t do a good job of keeping up with the action, and is sometimes too zoomed out. Thankfully, the game has some nice CG scenes, and none of the story scenes are too long or drawn out.

One plus is that the game does feature the voice actors from the movie. This helps as it draws you further into the game, and fits in well with the movie (no impersonators like in other licensed games). Background music does fit the feel of the game, but is forgettable and not the type of music you’ll have stuck in your head after playing.

Gameplay is pretty much your standard beat-em-up, but the game employs team tactics. For most of the game you will either have two or four characters fighting enemies fighting at one time. Players can easily maneuver from one character to the other using the D-pad, and all of the other characters will be controlled by AI. For the most part, your team-mates do a good job of taking care of themselves, but every once in awhile they’ll just sit there and do nothing. Enemy AI is decent, but reminiscent of an old school beat-em-up, for better or worse.

Each character has a specific mini-game of sorts they have to perform when unlocking a door or clearing an obstacle. Mr. Fantastic has to align rings in a certain order within a certain amount of time to hack security systems and unlock doors. The Thing has you pounding on the A button as much as possible to break through obstacles. The Human Torch has you pressing and holding a button as displayed on the screen, and Invisible Woman has you twirling the analog stick as fast as possible. This is unique, but you end up doing a bit of it every single level.

Basically, you take on enemies, take out bosses, and protect structures and civilians. It ends up getting repetitive and is better in small doses. What makes it better is that by completing bonus goals and finding extra icons unlocks bonus material, such as cast interviews, and additional bonus material. It is nice, but you do need to play through a lot of the game to get most of it. Another nice feature is that all the characters have moves that can be upgraded as the game goes on. Players can play co-op as well, with either the main campaign or a special Arena mode where players take on waves of enemies. Unfortunately this must be chosen at the beginning of the game; players can’t just jump in at any time.

Fantastic 4 is pretty average overall, and while the engine is decent, there isn’t anything in particular that makes it stand out. Fans of the movie will appreciate all the unlockables, but those who weren’t major fans of the movie or series should give it a rental for now.

Chris Dahlberg