Over all, most games based off a movie license are either stunning examples of mediocrity or just plain bad. The exceptions are so few and far between that tend I ignore them all together. Then The Incredibles rolled around, and my editor told me she wanted me to do a write up on it. I loved the movie, so I agreed. I figured that if they can capture a third of what was in the movie, then it should be an awesome game. I think I gave THQ and Heavy Iron Studios, the makers of the game, a bit too much credit to be able to break the curse of the movie to video game translation.The Incredibles game takes you right along with the action of the movie, enabling you to play the part of your favorite character in the action of the story. However, the developers failed to include the story that takes place between these action sequences, relying instead on the assumption that you have seen the movie and know what is going on. If you have seen the movie, that is fine. However, if you have not then what is going on in the game will not make the slightest bit of sense to you. You will just be bouncing from level to level with out a sense of the big picture.
Normally in an action game that would not be that big of a deal. The flow of the levels would carry you along and the fun of the game would take over. I dearly wish that was true here. The first few levels of the game introduce you to the mechanics that the game will be using for the next thirty-odd levels. In those early levels the mechanics are still fun. However, after seeing them repeatedly, they tend to lose their charm and become stale. The AI falls victim to this as well. None of the monsters you fight are that interesting, and the way the game ramps up the difficulty level is by throwing more of them at you. One aspect of the levels that brings the game down a large amount is the heavy reliance on jumping puzzles. The jumping puzzles in this game are long, complicated and very often timed. This means that you will find yourself having to redo the same action just to get past a small section of the game. Once you do reach the end of a level, you are met with the occasional boss battle. All of the bosses in the game follow a pattern of three or four actions that just loop. The bosses are fairly easy to beat, but they have certain attacks that feel unavoidable and thus make the battles seem cheap.
The game switches between Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl for the main levels, but will occasionally spice things up by letting you play as one of the two children. While the levels with the children are a welcome break from the pattern, they are still not a whole lot of fun themselves. Dash's levels require you to have twitch reflexes to handle his speed, and Violet's stealth levels are unforgiving for a single mistake. In the normal part of the game, there will be occasional breaks from the platform-style of gameplay while you man a turret to blow up some stuff. These breaks are rare, and do not make up for the lack-luster play in-between.
Visually, The Incredibles does a good job conveying the half-real, half-cartoon look of the movie. The levels are huge and beautiful, in a way that you rarely see in console games. The design for the things you come across feel right at home in the world. The animations are excellent, but some of them could have been sped up to make the game play better. The sound is ripped right out of the movie, with only Samuel L. Jackson having returned to provide new recordings for the game, most of which are in the game's menus. The characters will drop one-liners from the movie, but they tend to be over used and make you wish there was an option to turn them off. The controls feel a little loose, and there is no way to lock on to an enemy, so a lot of times you will miss by a good deal. This is exacerbated by one of the worst game cameras I have ever come across. The camera will get caught on the game environment and lock your view at the most inopportune moments. Controlling manually gets to be a chore, but a necessary one because the camera never auto-corrects. You have to set it back manually. The Incredibles game is technically proficient, but fails to really show it off in a way that really would make your jaw drop.
Even if I was a child in the target demographic of this game, and madly in love with the movie (which I am), I would still have trouble recommending this game. There are too many annoying moments where you are grateful for the fast reload time because you have just died again while attempting a poorly-conceived jumping puzzle or were killed by some enemy from out of your field of view to call this a good game. It is an adequate game, it is a game based off a movie, and at best it is worth picking up used or renting for a weekend.
And the TV says to me, "I will eat your children." I look back, and say, "Only if I get to play their games after you're done."
