The Fantastic Four

The Good
First, the music is kindy catchy (although on my system, it sometimes skips, I think it's because of the disk though). Second, most of the scenery is pretty good and adds a bit of class to the game. Also, the controls are ok.

The Bad
Ok, where to start. First, the enemies are extremely repetitive. You'll fight the same two types of guys level after level. Next, the "special moves" are very repetitive. All the characters have a special move that hurts all enemies on the screen (different animation of course. The human torch will let a cascade of flame down everywhere and the Thing will do some kind of uber-ground pound) and another one that deals alot of damage to everyone nearby etc. Also, the characters all seem about the same. Although the manual says that some are stronger or faster, I never really noticed except for the difference in speed. Finally, if all this uniformity wasn't enough, there are only a few different normal attacks you can do. (I counted 4 per character). Next, boss battles are all pretty much the same. Either you just keep going and attacking him, or you block, and then attack, block, than attack. Not alot of variety. Finally, the game is pretty short (only about 5 levels.) and doesn't allow you to save (this is one of those games where you have to play the whole thing if you turn it off.

The Bottom Line
I'd reccomend that you rent this or maybe borrow it if you're a hardcore marvel fan. if not, then it's not worth it.

The Good
Prior to the box office films, The Fantastic Four had made few video game starring appearances, and I was certainly excited at the prospect of control the famous Marvel Comics superheroes.

The characters and storyline provide plenty of great material and the first Marvel Comics superhero to make it to the Playstation 1, Iron Man, had turned out very nicely.

The basic game play is not creative, but it works. You get to control any of the Fantastic Four, plus the Incredible She Hulk, through several side scrolling levels with the levels and super villain bosses taken from the pages of Marvel Comics.

Each character has their own offensive and defensive fighting moves along with their famous special powers. The game has the characters grow larger or smaller depending on how close they are to the screen and the retro music is pretty cool to. Heck, you can even pick up items (even minor thugs) to toss at enemies or objects in the background.

The Bad
While the game treats you to some nice CGI animated sequences at the beginning (without the She Hulk) the actual storyline is incredible incomplete.

Somehow Doctor Doom has created a device that transports the Fantastic…er…um Five to various locations. Later on it is described as some sort of time machine, but it does not appear to be one, and it feels incredible weak and confusing for a Fantastic Four storyline.

The controls are generally responsive, but most of the complicated fighting moves are too difficult to pull off. The super powers use up a separate energy bar and are also difficult to pull off. Basically you spend most of long and (to their credit) cool looking levels punching, kicking and tossing stuff into the background.

Yet, if you use the same attack or defensive move often, a useless little icon appears on-screen to tell you that you are being cheesy. Hmm. This coming from people who managed to take a cool comic book franchise and produce this confusing mess?

The programmers gave us a strange race car mini-game to play while the game loads the levels and (I kid you not) totally bizarre battles with the likes of Dragon Man and (yes) Iceman.

I suspect that Iceman was originally supposed to be the Silver Surfer, but these battle sequences between levels are just strange.

Eventually you travel to Doom’s tiny kingdom for a final battle. If you manage to beat Doom you are treated to a horribly short ending.


The Bottom Line
I loved the Iron-Man/XO game and had high hopes for the Fantastic Four.

So many of the mistakes are just so obvious, that you have to wonder if this game was somehow rushed or drastically edited, because it just seems like a giant, confusing mess.

On the plus side, it is one of the few Playstation 1 side-scrolling games that allow you to play with a friend. If you love the comic book series, you may want to get a hold of the game and play it over a weekend with a friend. Yet, be prepared for confusion and disappointment.

The Good
Fantastic Four for the PlayStation 1 gets a bum wrap, and I think that part of the negatively is misplaced.

This game was never going to be an vast open world concept, ala Skyrim. The technology and development budget didn't exist.

This is a game designed during the early days of the PlayStation 1. As such, this game was always going to be a side-scrolling, beat 'em up, with familiar superheroes and super villains.

The Fantastic Four is actually a pretty good game, as a basic beat 'em up platformer. Multiple players (up to 4) can play at once, a rarity in gaming, and each character looks like their comic book counterpart.

Comic Book fans will recognize many of the game's levels, because they are based on past issues of the Fantastic Four, such as the destruction of Skull home world by Galactus.

The game also has some nice little details that often get overlooked; you can change which character you play as, a narrator announces the superheroes as they are beamed into a level and sometimes the bosses will trade witty, comic book barbs with our heroes.

The Bad
The biggest complaint with the Fantastic Four is the control mechanics.

Compared to another game in the same genre, i.e. Streets Of Rage 2, our "fantastic" heroes often struggle to quickly and consistently pull off their offensive and defensive moves.

It really hurts the enjoyment of the game and is a flaw that could have easily been prevented with a bit more fine tuning, even looking at how game play mechanics worked in other games of the genre.

Not only are the special "superhero" moves tough to consistently pull off, they deplete a energy bar, which you must collect icons in order to replenish.

The result, for many players, is to stick to basic punching and kicking attacks. When this happens, the game becomes repetitive because you are doing very simple attacks on the same sort of minions, until you make it to the boss.

Again, all of these game play problem that could have been prevented with better game play mechanics. It is not rocket science.

The available moves themselves are OK, although I find it annoying that playing as the Human Torch doesn't mean regular use of fire balls.

Some aspects of the game are not good or bad, but rather weird.

The storyline has Doctor Doom kidnapping our heroes and forcing them to relive past battles. It is not the most creative storyline, for a comic book game. It is also not terrible easy to follow. The game really could have benefited from more work on telling the story, beyond a series of text.

I personally did not dislike the funky, jazz sound track. However, the music is seeking to create a much more lighter, if not campier, tone then is common for a side-scrolling beat 'em up.

If you manage to make it to the "bonus rounds", you will see one of the more infamous aspects of this video game.

These bonus rounds come after you defeat a boss, without losing a life, and feature a member of the Fantastic Four doing battle with likes of say, Dragon Man.

These battles are setup to be similar to a "versus" battle in a fighting game. Although, the problems with the game play mechanics remain.

The game never explains that this is a bonus level, and one of the battles involves a member of the Fantastic Four battling with another super hero, Ice Man?!

Why are the Fantastic Four battling Ice Man? Ice Man is a member of the Uncanny X-Men, and generally not working for the likes of Doctor Doom. Comic book fans will have a hard time trying to think of a scenario where such a battle would make sense.

The Bottom Line
Fantastic Four for the PlayStation 1 is a solid, side-scrolling, beat 'em up with some game play mechanics that will take time getting used to. It is one of the few games of the genre that allow for four players, which makes it a great retro game to bring out at a party.