Format: Advance
Genre: Brawler
Developer: 7 Studios
Publisher: Activision

Sometimes games surprise you. This one certainly did in a most interesting way. Fantastic Four is a well popularized comic book series in the marvel universe. It retells the story of how the series started, from the cosmic radiation, to the first confrontation with "Dr. Doom". Interestingly enough, the game takes a lot of stuff from the movie adaptation as well. It's a sort of mix and mesh between the two, as well as some villains that are specific to the comics. The game plays like another isometric brawler. Each character has their own unique attack style and special moves based on their powers. Their styles are fairly accurate as far as how they would pragmatically be designed. Sue has a long range attack, but Johnny is far better at them. Ben is clearly the tank, and Reed has a much wider ranger of motions. What's unique to this game is that you are almost never alone on any missions. You always have an AI partner with you fighting through levels. The interesting thing about this game too is that you can switch to any partner that you have available. That means in boss fights you can switch to any member of the fantastic four. Speaking of boss fights, they are probably the best part of this game. Most games would set up a ridiculous boss with a gimmick and just call it at that, this game actually has some decent bosses that don't go down like a wet duck. They may not have the best AI in the world, but they do offer a bit of a challenge in some cases. It also feels really good to see your entire team beating up on them. There isn't much replay value in this one, but it's worth the playthrough since the story is there and the gameplay is decently solid enough. The music isn't too shabby either. The biggest flaw of this game is probably the sound f/x... they're really crunchy and loud. I'd recommend putting sound to 50% or less from the options menu.

All in All, I decided a high score of 8 was appropriate for this game. The sound was crunchy and loud, sometimes it was hard to aim long range attacks, remembering specific button combinations for 4 characters can be taxing, no replay value