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THQ follows-up with another Pixar license. Finding Nemo was an incredible success for Disney and Pixar, but also for THQ as the Finding Nemo-licensed videogames flew off shelves. Well, Pixar’s latest effort is now at theaters everywhere and THQ has appropriate preempted it with a videogame based on the film.
Like the film of the same name, The Incredibles follows the life of a group of retired superheroes. The parents in the family, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, retired after the world turned against superheroes and settled in a “normal” life. They had two children, Dash and Violet, who inherited superhero powers as well. After getting out of shape and accustomed to the easy life, the Incredible family must help save the world once it is threatened again. The game seems to follow the movie’s plot and tells its story through scenes taken directly from the movie.
The game allows you to play as each of the members of the Incredibles family. There are stages for Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, son Dash and daughter Violet. Each of the family members has their own unique twist and their levels reflect that. In fact, they are pretty well designed to exploit the character’s unique ability. Mr. Incredible is quite strong, and as such his levels are of the typical, mindless beat-em-up category. The game does throw a decent number of enemies at you in order to make it a touch more interesting. Elastigirl is well elastically-gifted and her levels use her ability to knock down a variety of enemies. Dash’s levels are speed-focused, given his super speed ability, so you’ll be doing a lot of racing. Lastly, Violet has the ability to go invisible for a short while so her levels are light-stealth ones.
The game’s graphics appropriate capture the look of the movie. The characters are exactly like those in the movie, and pull off their various moves with great liveliness. The environments are seemingly appropriate, although they could use slightly more detailed textures to really bring them to life. Otherwise, the game’s camera system is a bit awkward at times but for the most part keeps up with the game well.
The audio in the game is equally suitable. The soundtrack seems to be ripped directly from the movie and as such goes along with the game well. The sound effects are fitting as well, but nothing out of the ordinary. The game uses sound-a-likes for the one liners during gameplay, but you’ll hear the actual cast in the movie scenes that tell the stories. Samuel L. Jackson does provide his own voice acting in the game’s tutorial, however. Like usual, audio is provided by Dolby Pro Logic II.
Definitely aimed at the younger audiences, The Incredibles is an adequate but unremarkable action game on its own. The license certainly does help thanks to Pixar’s unique charm and the game includes a variety of movie footage and trailers to please fans of the film. As a licensed, children-oriented game The Incredibles succeeds but on its own, it is ordinary. -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- Nov 5, 2004
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