The Incredibles
Anything but...
Published: November 20, 2004
Holy crap was The Incredibles great -- the movie, that is, not the game. The game... well, it's pretty. Sadly, it's also pretty lousy despite all the fancy effects and obvious attempts to marry assets from the film with the game. While there's obviously a bit of talent at home in developer Heavy Iron Studios, there just didn't seem to be enough to expand an hour and a half movie into about ten times that much gameplay, resulting in way too much repetition and a difficulty level that's probably well beyond the target audience.
For those that don't know the skinny on the movie, just go see it. Seriously, there's probably no better way to spend your cash at the box office this year -- especially if you're a bit of a video game or comic book nerd (and if you're reading this, you have to have some kind of a jones for at least games). Don't worry, we'll wait...
Back yet? No...? Heeeey, there you are. Hookay, on with the revie- what do you mean you did go? Fine, go get another beer and we'll fill you in on the basics.
See, Mr. Incredible lived up to his name a couple years back. He trounced evil, worked with dozens of other super heroes and basically kept the city safe. And, best of all, he loved his job. Really loved it. But, when saving the city begins to cause more damage and endanger more lives than the authorities can handle, he's forced to go into hiding, settle down with his wife (Elastigirl for those curious) and raise a family.
Problem is, after a couple years at a soul-crushing, high-stress hellhole of a job, he's starting to get the itch for superheroism again. Ol' wifey (now domesticated and going by Mrs. Incredible) doesn't quite agree with that, especially since superheroes are more or less outlawed these days, and with the kids themselves boasting their own powers, (Dash can run insanely fast, and Violet can turn invisible and throw up force fields) it wouldn't quite set a good example for them.
However, when Mr. Incredible gets a mysterious package addressing him as just that rather than his everyday persona, it piques his interest, leading him to a mysterious benefactor and a-- eh, that's all you get. Go see the friggin' movie already.
The game more or less mirrors the movie, but spends plenty of time expanding on scenes that in some cases were merely hinted at in the movie. Still others were resolved quick quickly in the movie and require far more elaborate means to move on, and that's part of the problem with the game. Sure, the developers had access to Pixar's resources, and it shows in how closely the look of the game mirrors the movie, but when you try to expand an hour and a half of pure entertainment into a full game, it's akin to trying to blow up a small photo into a billboard; all of the definition and specifics are lost under a muddled bunch of useless filler.
The game tries to alternate some interesting types of gameplay, from Dash's blurry sprints through and out of danger to Violet's more stealth-based missions to Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's more basic platforming elements. The problem is, even with the different characters offering some variety, the basic controls always feel a bit wonky and the targeting for lobbing or hitting objects can be frustratingly inaccurate -- especially when coupled with a camera that seems to favor leaving you with as little useful view as possible.
The combination of disconnected controls and overstretched gameplay is made all the worse by the fact that the game regularly recycles elements over and over again (albeit in slightly different forms for some things like platforms and delivery of enemies), and forces jumps that can be hard to nail, giving things a slightly monotonous tone as you play them over and over again to move on. There's no cap on lives, but the difficulty seems tweaked more for testers than the kid gamers that are already going to wrestle with the controls. Some of the later boss fights (and some of the early ones) can test even gaming vets' patience.
That's not to say everything is horrible, mind you, it's just that almost everything you'll see here, you've probably done before, and usually in a slightly tighter way or with a better difficulty curve. After you've dashed through the 20th thicket or pounded through the 100th enemy (complete with oddly sloppy hit detection that can interrupt attacks when the camera angle shows they're well out of range), it all starts to blur together, and even the clips of the movie scattered throughout the game won't keep you going.
The game does offer one very distinct advantage over most other licensed games: it's friggin' gorgeous, and yet another testament to how powerful the RenderWare platform really is. This is seriously one of the best looking games on the PS2. It's not one of the best playing and that's a very key distinction, but when you see the rippling water or slick effects lavished over parts of the environments -- environments that do a damned fine job of replicating parts of the movie, I might add -- it's hard to stop playing, just because it's fun to see how the next big scene in the movie will make the transition to game form. Plenty of rich, colorful textures and a nearly rock-solid framerate mean things are anything but an eyesore.
The sound is another matter. While game vet Michael Giacchino (he's the guy responsible for the music in the console Medal of Honor games, and most recently composed the score for Activision's Call of Duty: Finest Hour) provides a fantastic soundtrack (it's even better in the movie), the effects work feels a bit flat.
THQ ponied up the cash for Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee (and it's not a bad decision, the guys were made to do game voice-overs) as well as National Public Radio personality Sarah Vowell reprising her role as violet. The rest of the voice cast does a decent job of covering the pipes of big names like Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter, but the biggest problem with all of the characters is that they spout out the same catchphrases ad nauseum until you're ready to hit the mute button just to shut them up.
The bottom line is this is a game that has been done before in various ways. The movie is absolutely killer, and there was an obvious level of communication between the developers and Disney/Pixar that bodes well for future licensed games, but in the end The Incredibles the game comes nowhere close to delivering the kind of punch that the movie offered, and for those looking for something to tide them over between showings of the movie, this is definitely not the way to do it.
For those that don't know the skinny on the movie, just go see it. Seriously, there's probably no better way to spend your cash at the box office this year -- especially if you're a bit of a video game or comic book nerd (and if you're reading this, you have to have some kind of a jones for at least games). Don't worry, we'll wait...
Back yet? No...? Heeeey, there you are. Hookay, on with the revie- what do you mean you did go? Fine, go get another beer and we'll fill you in on the basics.
See, Mr. Incredible lived up to his name a couple years back. He trounced evil, worked with dozens of other super heroes and basically kept the city safe. And, best of all, he loved his job. Really loved it. But, when saving the city begins to cause more damage and endanger more lives than the authorities can handle, he's forced to go into hiding, settle down with his wife (Elastigirl for those curious) and raise a family.
Problem is, after a couple years at a soul-crushing, high-stress hellhole of a job, he's starting to get the itch for superheroism again. Ol' wifey (now domesticated and going by Mrs. Incredible) doesn't quite agree with that, especially since superheroes are more or less outlawed these days, and with the kids themselves boasting their own powers, (Dash can run insanely fast, and Violet can turn invisible and throw up force fields) it wouldn't quite set a good example for them.
However, when Mr. Incredible gets a mysterious package addressing him as just that rather than his everyday persona, it piques his interest, leading him to a mysterious benefactor and a-- eh, that's all you get. Go see the friggin' movie already.
The game more or less mirrors the movie, but spends plenty of time expanding on scenes that in some cases were merely hinted at in the movie. Still others were resolved quick quickly in the movie and require far more elaborate means to move on, and that's part of the problem with the game. Sure, the developers had access to Pixar's resources, and it shows in how closely the look of the game mirrors the movie, but when you try to expand an hour and a half of pure entertainment into a full game, it's akin to trying to blow up a small photo into a billboard; all of the definition and specifics are lost under a muddled bunch of useless filler.
The game tries to alternate some interesting types of gameplay, from Dash's blurry sprints through and out of danger to Violet's more stealth-based missions to Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl's more basic platforming elements. The problem is, even with the different characters offering some variety, the basic controls always feel a bit wonky and the targeting for lobbing or hitting objects can be frustratingly inaccurate -- especially when coupled with a camera that seems to favor leaving you with as little useful view as possible.
The combination of disconnected controls and overstretched gameplay is made all the worse by the fact that the game regularly recycles elements over and over again (albeit in slightly different forms for some things like platforms and delivery of enemies), and forces jumps that can be hard to nail, giving things a slightly monotonous tone as you play them over and over again to move on. There's no cap on lives, but the difficulty seems tweaked more for testers than the kid gamers that are already going to wrestle with the controls. Some of the later boss fights (and some of the early ones) can test even gaming vets' patience.
That's not to say everything is horrible, mind you, it's just that almost everything you'll see here, you've probably done before, and usually in a slightly tighter way or with a better difficulty curve. After you've dashed through the 20th thicket or pounded through the 100th enemy (complete with oddly sloppy hit detection that can interrupt attacks when the camera angle shows they're well out of range), it all starts to blur together, and even the clips of the movie scattered throughout the game won't keep you going.
The game does offer one very distinct advantage over most other licensed games: it's friggin' gorgeous, and yet another testament to how powerful the RenderWare platform really is. This is seriously one of the best looking games on the PS2. It's not one of the best playing and that's a very key distinction, but when you see the rippling water or slick effects lavished over parts of the environments -- environments that do a damned fine job of replicating parts of the movie, I might add -- it's hard to stop playing, just because it's fun to see how the next big scene in the movie will make the transition to game form. Plenty of rich, colorful textures and a nearly rock-solid framerate mean things are anything but an eyesore.
The sound is another matter. While game vet Michael Giacchino (he's the guy responsible for the music in the console Medal of Honor games, and most recently composed the score for Activision's Call of Duty: Finest Hour) provides a fantastic soundtrack (it's even better in the movie), the effects work feels a bit flat.
THQ ponied up the cash for Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee (and it's not a bad decision, the guys were made to do game voice-overs) as well as National Public Radio personality Sarah Vowell reprising her role as violet. The rest of the voice cast does a decent job of covering the pipes of big names like Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter, but the biggest problem with all of the characters is that they spout out the same catchphrases ad nauseum until you're ready to hit the mute button just to shut them up.
The bottom line is this is a game that has been done before in various ways. The movie is absolutely killer, and there was an obvious level of communication between the developers and Disney/Pixar that bodes well for future licensed games, but in the end The Incredibles the game comes nowhere close to delivering the kind of punch that the movie offered, and for those looking for something to tide them over between showings of the movie, this is definitely not the way to do it.
