| Author | Review |
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thirtysmooth
164,545
TA Score for this game: 1,140
Posted on 19 January 11 at 12:37, Edited on 25 January 11 at 11:42 |
This review has 13 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
My nephews love Ben 10. Make no mistake about that. I don’t know how many games have been made that are Ben 10 related for the PSP and the Nintendo DS, but they have a few of them. When they saw me playing it on the Xbox they responded with a high pitched scream of excitement. And that is exactly what the game developer Papaya Studio wants to hear. So why am I playing it then? I have never watched a film or TV show featuring him, neither have I played a game with him featured. The sole reason I rented this – notice how I said rented and not bought? – is for the purpose of entertaining the kids. Stick this on for them and they’ll be as quiet as a graveyard mouse. Think of it as a pacifier for pre-teen generation. That is about the only plus I could find with this game. Yes it’s for kids, so I shouldn’t really complain too much, but it’s hard to find any plus points to this game from an adult point of view.
You get a choice to transform between 10 different characters (hence Ben 10), all of which are completely different. They vary from “Humungosaur” which looks kind of like a huge dinosaur, “Spidermonkey” which is, well, exactly what it sounds like, a cross between a spider and a monkey and some kind of Flame-man which, again, is exactly what it says. There aren’t any real stand-out characters which are original or haven’t been done before. One question which begs to be asked is: Why would anyone want to play as Ben himself? He is completely useless. He’s weak and has very limited special attacks. I might just try and complete the game solely using Ben just for sh*ts and giggles, but then why would I want to waste my life playing more of this game then I actually have to? I’m rambling so I’ll move on...
The graphics are horrible. They looks as though they’ve come from the N64, you know, that age where they were still experimenting with 3D games. The clipping on the graphics are terrible. I lost count of the number of times I got stuck trying to jump on certain platforms. What I mean is, what you see graphically isn’t actually what it appears to be physically. Example, I’ll jump up onto a platform only to find I had actually missed it altogether, giving that appearance of falling through the platform. It’s difficult to explain, but for all those NES platform gamers of yonder, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The enemies are you’re bog standard stuff, men with lasers, bots with lasers, big tough guys which take a little longer to kill, but on the whole nothing that stands out. Again, the bosses are very mundane. Find out their pattern, then exploit it. 2 minutes later and you’re done. It’s very droll to say the least.
If there was one thing that annoyed me and if anyone knows the answer, please let me know, but what was the point of the space missions in between levels? Basically, you control a space ship and you shoot meteors and some robot things. You lose some of your power every time you shoot, but then gain it back for shooting things. These missions have no objectives and can be skipped by pulling the left trigger. I played it for 2 minutes then skipped it because it was so sadistically boring!
The achievements are bog standard, have no imagination, and appear to have been devised by an 8 year old. The majority will come with natural progression of the game as they are story related. The "Kill 150 enemies with XXX" (XXX denoting a certain character) are monotonous and boring. Overall though, they are all very easily obtainable within a 5-6 hour time frame, this depending on your patience and skill at the game.
So if you have kids who love Ben 10 and want to keep them entertained for hours on end it’s definitely worth a buy. Nothing else will give you peace and quiet quite like this. If you are of sane mental state you’ll know better than to try and indulge in this sorry excuse for a game. If you are slightly simple or mentally challenged, go nuts, you’ll love it.
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