Xbox

Catwoman

Catwoman attempts to deliver some Prince of Persia-like acrobatics, but its sharp graphics are offset by bad control, weak voice work, and shoddy gameplay.It used to be that you'd have to wait awhile to see games based on the big summer movie releases. But these days, the simultaneous movie-video game release seems to be rapidly becoming the norm. Electronic Arts, which has done some great work recently with its games based on the Lord of the Rings movies, is now delivering a game based on the upcoming Halle Berry movie, Catwoman. Catwoman attempts to deliver some Prince of Persia-like acrobatics, but its sharp graphics are offset by bad control, weak voice work, and shoddy gameplay.

The game is a standard action adventure, spiced up with some innovative combat — Catwoman uses a whip to disarm her enemies — but it’s still a pleasant way to disengage your brain for an hour or two.

I'm not sure how many times I've heard that Berry looks amazing in this movie and in the game and everywhere else. But she is getting to be 38 and it is typical for women over 40 in Hollywood to never get any of the glamorous action movie roles. Just think, the most logical choice would have been to beg Michelle Pfeiffer to reprise her Batman nemesis role. Hopefully, Berry will get a chance to embody a character with a story worth telling and in this case, a game worth playing, before she is shut aside.

I would say that kids might end up liking this game because it is based on the movie, but judging from the outcome of the box-office bomb I don’t even think anybody took their kids to see it. I just thought this game was not very good. If it clocked in at $20 it might have received a few more points, but I see no reason to put $40 on the counter for this game. Not the PS2 version, not the GameCube version, and not the Xbox version. Stay away from this one!

This single-player adventure may be worth a weekend rental for fans of the film -- and it can be easily completed in that time -- but others should steer clear of this hairball of a game.

Just the thought of watching the Catwoman movie makes me vomit a little in my mouth. The idea of playing the game that is based on this waste of film is the equivalent to dunking my head into the world’s dirtiest toilet and gargling. After spending two complete days with this killer app (killer as in you’ll die a little inside each time you play it), I can safely say that I’ve experienced horrors that your mind can’t even begin to comprehend. In short, playing this epic-sized monstrosity is similar to being scratched to death by a house cat…not only is it painful, it’s also embarrassing.

Games with popular movie licenses have been all the talk this summer. With surprise hits like Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Spider-Man 2, developers have been shaking the stigma that you can't make a good game from based on a movie. However, given what seems ample material for a quality action-adventure title, EA misses the mark by a mile.

To highlight the sheer ineptness of this title, leave your joypad alone for a few seconds and marvel at the extent to which the developers created an idle animation. Sure we've seen Sonic wag his finger at you and Mario fall to sleep, however Catwoman struts her stuff in this elaborate cut-scene styled effect whenever you let go off the pad for a few seconds, it's just a shame that this much effort wasn't put into the actual game.

Catwoman is a flat out bomb, just like the pictures ticket sales. It's a shame Electronic Arts had to develop a movie version of Catwoman without the freedom of using the real feline character from the comics. Stay away from this game.

Catwoman is one of those games that gives licensed properties a bad name?something really depressing as movie-based titles were starting to gain respectability with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and Spider-Man 2. No, Catwoman fumbles the ball?from the moment you press start there?s nothing but frustration. You play as Patience, a woman left for dead, but instead of pushing up daisies, she?s revived/saved/resurrected by cats. Somehow her small furry saviors imbue her with cat-powers (or something like that), which translate into a limited repertoire of flailing punch-kick moves, expertise with a whip, and other purchasable powers that are available as the game progresses.

Poor Catwoman. As one of Batman's enemies, she was really little more than a pretty face and hot body in a tight catsuit. Judging by the ubiquitous trailers for the new Halle Berry movie, it looks like more of the same. When it was announced that Electronic Arts would be doing the Catwoman game, however, my spirits picked up a bit. After all, EA generally puts out a quality product, even if there isn't a lot to work with. Sometimes, though, only so much can be done, and this seems to be the case here. Not only is there little in the way of story, there's even less when it comes to actual gameplay.

Electronic Arts has enjoyed a great run in the last few years, trumping everyone with dozens of great games, million-plus selling franchises, and innovation that is tough to compete with. Every so often it's bound to happen, though. You know a slip-up, a mistake, a wrong guess. That one game that maybe they shouldn't have bought the movie rights to. That's Catwoman. Or as I like to call it, Shatwoman.

Overall, the score is justified based on the fact that beyond the 2 Catwoman fans out there, I can't suggest this game beyond that group of gamers. The game, while pretty to the eye, is flawed in execution in most every way, shape, and form. The story is bland, the game is short, the controls are iffy, and the camera is laughably bad. This all falls in the hands of the designers who tried to get this game out by the films arrival to cash in on the success, or lack thereof, of it. If more time and effort went into tweaking these issues, Catwoman may have been a decent game I could recommend to action fans. However, it will, like the film, be forgotten and not seen by most.

C'est fou comme une mauvaise jouabilité peut flinguer un titre. Puisqu'il est quasiment impossible de manier Catwoman comme on le voudrait, on ne s'amuse pas à suivre le personnage dans ses aventures. Souhaitons un destin tout autre au film sur grand écran.

Considering the pedigree, was there really any question as to how this hairball was going to turn out? It's the Catwoman game, for crying out loud, and it's precisely as bad as you thought it would be. Unless you have a fetish for crummy games, leave this one in the litterbox where it belongs.