The Incredibles

5.5
Average

Gameplay	4.0	"The Incredibles comes to DS with an unincredible game."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	5.0
Value	4.0

By Morgan Bates

For anyone who gave the movie a pass, Pixar’s The Incredibles was about a family of super-heroes with powers similar to those of Marvel’s Fantastic 4. The movie itself was un-incredible, however it did well enough to spawn a plethora of merchandise, including games.

The DS version of the latest title, The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer, has two playable characters - Mr. Incredible and Frozone. The rest of the incredible family are topside, leaving these two to take out the Underminer and his robot army. Being super heroes, both have many abilities to exploit.

Frozone can freeze enemies, as well as the air under him, allowing him to collect floating coins. Mr. Incredible can use his super-strength to smash or lift barriers. Switching heroes is easy, and their respective powers come in to play in battles as Frozone can freeze enemies and Mr. Incredible can smash or throw them.

The majority of the visuals look great; Frozone’s ice attacks and the explosions in particular are standouts. However, some of the animation in Mr. Incredible’s attacks are jerky, and the frame rate drops while running around corners. Although visually stunning, it does raise the question: “What is the point of having 3D environments if you can’t move in 3D?” In classic beat-em-ups like “Double Dragon” and “Final Fight” the graphics were 2D, but you could move in and out as well as jump. The Incredibles could have done this; instead, you are stuck moving in 2D in a 3D world.

There is a lot of wasted potential here - the environment/movement problem being only the tip of the iceberg. As we have seen in other super hero games, solving simplistic puzzles and trying to avoid traps are all you can do with your powers.

Some of the traps, such as a turntable or ice forcing you into some drills, are also very cheap moves to pull. This would not have been so bad if there weren’t so many traps and so few health packs. Even starting on normal mode, you will quickly lose many lives because of the frustrating level design.

Fortunately, the frustration is short lived, as the game is very short. Yes, not only is it riddled with frustrating and repetitive level designs, it is also one of the shortest games in recent memory.

Although it looks great, The Incredibles is an ‘incredibly’ repetitive and short cash-in on the movie with some of the cruellest trap designs I have seen in years. There is always potential for a super hero based title, but unfortunately The Incredibles fails to live up to its namesake.

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