Three movies, and until now Iıve played two of their video game counterparts. I was hoping that X-Men: The Official Game would be third time lucky. Nothing Iıve seen so far gives me the greatest of hope; nevertheless, here is Activisionıs latest DS-based movie tie-in.
Wolverine - him with the slashy blade hands, Iceman - of the icey blasts and Nightcrawler, the fast one. Itıs really that simple, but youıll need to know their talents because with such tiny, non-descript graphics, the three super heroes at your disposal can really only be discerned by what attack they might have. Whatıs more, thatıs pretty much the only superpower each mutant has.
As per usual with these movie games, youıre no doubt playing out some plot lines from the big screen. In actuality, X-Men: The Official Game is a completely generic top-down, maze-based beat 'em up. Some levels are solo; some are co-op - Wolverine canıt slash some enemies, so Iceman's projectiles are more appropriate. Sounds pretty simple huh?
Controlling the mutants is as simple as using the d-pad for direction, and targeting the enemy with the stylus. Again, that's it. Target the bad guys with the stylus; dodge the projectiles with the d-pad. Youıre getting the picture right?
Exclusive to the DS version is the ability to control Magneto which as one of the series' more intriguing characters, is pretty damn appealing. But when broken down to him being able to push objects in the general direction of the bad guys, is quite the let down. It really does seem like the developers decided to throw in some obstacles that the initial three guys canıt scale, requiring Magneto's powers to progress, as the only reason for his inclusion.
Granted, the targeting system is pretty unique to this kind of game, but thanks to it being fairly unresponsive, especially when things really heat up on screen, it ends up being completely derogatory. Add to this some really unattractive graphics that would almost be an underachievement on the GBA, along with some vaguely animated cut scenes (the DS can do so much better), and non-descript audio, and the whole package is turning sour pretty quickly.
As suggested, my hopes were not so high going into X-Men: The Official Game, but itıs always in the back of my mind that I might be pleasantly surprised.
Unfortunately, this third time is most definitely not a charm.
WHAM! Rating: |
4 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
E (Everyone) |
Official Web Site: |
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