PS2 Game Review - Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

MARVEL NEMESIS
RISE OF THE IMPERFECTS

By Le Chupacabra

There are crap games and there are utterly shit games. Now, wheeeeere to place this one on the Craptacular meter, hmm? Probably near the top five, for resembling poo to the nth degree.

That's right, EA has done it again.

Blowing at least a few million green, they roped in all the assets that most companies could dream of. A license from Marvel, original Marvel scribes, artists, et al. Coupling that with a concept that would cause comic fans' heads to explode with sheer joy, nothing could have gone wrong… provided that EA wasn't in charge.

I mean, in terms of presentation its pretty, not-sh*t. It uses a heavily stylised look for the characters which recalls the CG animated Spider-Man they used to show a few months back. Menus are slick, sophisticated and are pretty user-friendly, natch. That's sort of what EA's good at, innit? The new characters are also very well-designed since a major artist from Marvel was in charge of doing so. Good eye-candy here. Even, the character voices are well-done and while they're not the ones we're used to hearing in the animated Marvel shows, they're good sound-alikes that get the job done.

Unfortunately, I'm done praising this game already.
Sadly, in terms of the actual meat-and-potatoes, the gameplay, this once-promising title, really, really lacks. Really. Unlike the traditional side-perspective of fighting games this is more like a brawler set in a sort of boxed, interactive arena so you can move around the characters and let them do what they do best. In other words, it's a huge chance to mess up on making a game when you don't stick to the basics. Movement is rather sluggish for all, so you're only left to get a feel for the characters unique traits via animation and moves alone. The animations themselves are rather stilted and it seems like everyone has Play-Dough crammed up their joints. Unless a character has an auto-aiming attack (like Spider-Man's web missiles), you might as well be circling your opponent for all eternity if you want to hit. More Craptacular™ points here. The environments are interactive to the point that you can pick and chuck random stuff and damage the playing field. BUT, it lacks a certain sense of cohesion. When I use the Thing to flatten a car I want to see it implode into a crushed mass of nothingness, dammit. I refuse to get a generic explosion and end up with what looks like a black pencil case. The same applies for most things. If you want interactive destruction with a Marvel super-hero, look no further than the utterly addictive and suitably violent Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Here, the hits are meekly punctuated with what sounds like bizatch-slapping and special powers aren't as impressive as you'd thought they'd be. You might think it'd be awesome to bust out Wolverine's adamantium claws and lacerate your foe with a berserker barrage. Not here. Provided you actually manage to hit your opponent (a rarity with close-combat chars) you'll go into a set animation of been-there-done-that combos that just about ruin the fact that you're playing as one of the coolest characters on the Marvel roster. It's sad, to say the least. At least the grunts are authentic, so I gotta give kudos there. The controls are very iffy as well. It eschews the more traditionalist set up and ends up with a 3rd person/fighting hybrid that's a pain to use. Another bad aspect is that the new characters, The Imperfects as they are called, are just that absolutely imperfect. They feel more like different skins for the Marvel chars than anything else. With utterly ridiculous and laughably lame storylines for each (sadly, they were penned by a revered Marvel scribe), they don't come across as enticing or likeable as any of the Marvel group. But once again, most of your starting roster incorporates these freaks. In order to unlock more Marvel goodness, you have to plunge your head in the toilet after you've RELIEVED yourself, natch you must play the story mode. Words cannot describe how insanely boring, frustrating or pathetic it was. If you want a camp, yet really fun 'fighting game-action/adventurer', Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks offers hours of old school goodness full of high-pitched yelling, gory fatalities and tense boss fights. On the flip side, Marvel Nemesis is just plain sucktacular. It is not worth going through the pain of story mode just to unlock the Marvel characters. There are way better Marvel-based games out there (The Marvel vs. Capcom series being a shining example). Just… just stick to the starting roster and keep playing Versus mode if you insist on playing this game.

I have to admit, initially it was slightly fun (the Versus mode that is, not the story mode) but even then, that lost its appeal. If a fighting game can't retain itself through versus mode, then all hope is lost.

I was really hyped up about this game. The screenshots looked tantalising and the concept seemed brilliant (after all, Marvel vs. Capcom is one the most popular fighting games ever). However, despite a flashy, presentation, everything just plain sucked. There, you heard it here. Now back to Soul Calibur II…