The Incredibles

Here are two reviews for the price of one.

First, a quick review of the movie. The Incredibles is fantastic: funny, smart, and well written. It has astonishing animation--naturally. I mean it is Pixar we're talking about. And it has lively voice performances by Craig T. Nelson, Jason Lee, and especially Holly Hunter. I am very serious when I say it's one of the best superhero flicks ever made. How long can the folks at Pixar keep topping themselves?

Second review. The Incredibles: the game. It's a third person action title, and like many movie-to-game adaptations, it takes place over the course of the flick, recreating key scenes and expanding things as necessary. You'll get to play as Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet and Dash, and do all the cool things you saw in the movie. Fight Bomb Voyage, battle the Omnidroid, and use all of the Incredibles' powers. In between the 18 levels, you'll get cutscenes lifted directly from the movie.

The game does a great job of recreating those powers. As Mr. Incredible, you have powerful punches and can pick up stuff and throw them at your opponents. You can even pick up and throw enemies at other enemies. Elastgirl can stretch and grab foes at a distance; or move to higher, hard to reach places. Dash can run very fast, and even has turbo mode for extra speed. Violet can turn invisible for the stealth approach. There's a level where brother and sister work together, and turn into that rolling shield ball.

The heroes have an "Incredi-Meter" which allows them to do particularly powerful "Incredi-Attacks." The longer you hold the Incredi-Attack button down, the more devastating the attack. I like Mr. Incredible's running punch. Very useful for cleaning up groups of foes.

The levels are based on environments seen in the movie: city rooftops, volcanic caverns, and island jungles. There are few extra things thrown in, like a sequence where you play as Dash, running through traffic to get to school on time. The levels are pretty standard for a run-jump-and-fight game. They're linear, but they do throw in some sequences with turrets to spice them up a little.

Most of the levels involve Mr. Incredible, which is a shame, because the other characters are pretty interesting too, but don't get as much game time. Violet is particularly under-represented, and Frozone is not a playable character. I know they're only following the movie and these two don't have as much to do, but it's still disappointing.

Controls are ok, though the game needs a better lock-on and camera system. During boss battles it can be particularly tough to handle. When fighting the Omnidroid, the camera locks on the droid, making your movements relative to it, and it's difficult to see where you're going when you're running away...uh, I mean strategically withdrawing. Since tracking down health power-ups and boulders to throw are a vital part of the fight, this is not a small frustration.

The audio is nicely done, and features music from the movie. Graphics are not as impressive as the movie's CGI, but they're not bad at all. It should be noted that the Xbox version does have a slight edge in the graphics department, plus it offers some extra content through Xbox Live. A downloadable arena mode is already available.

The Incredibles is a light action game that ties into the movie very well, and those that loved the movie and want to spend time with these characters should enjoy it. I hope they keep making games based on the Incredible family. This one is a good start, but I see potential for more. Since Pixar is unwilling to do an Incredibles II themselves, I say turn it over to the game industry. We can start the next game with a battle against the Underminer...

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