The Incredibles Review

By Patrick Garratt Published 21 December, 2004

But will it send the littluns into an incredible sulk?

Version tested: PlayStation 2

Order yours now from Simply Games.

The chances are you've seen The Incredibles. Even if you haven't, the cloying hype surrounding the Pixar animation has been unavoidable this Christmas, so there's no point in telling you of a plot involving a superhero family and the regaining of its powers. You know this already. It's everywhere. Incredible.

The power of Pixar

'The Incredibles' Screenshot 1

While some vault the movie into the stratosphere, it's arguably too much. Too long, too polished, too good. The game, incredibly enough, is a faithful representation of the film plot, with the four members of the family rediscovering their respective powers and using them for good, good, good. Cerebral it isn't.

The feel of the film makes it to the Planet Interactive intact. Developer Heavy Iron would have had to go a long way to screw up the general ambience, given the ridiculously professional standard of the source material, so there's no great surprise there. The Incredibles as a concept is funny, surprising and endearingly entertaining: the game was always going to work on this level.

Each of the family's characters gets its own levels, which take the form of linear platforming (shock), and each exhibits its specific superpowers. Mr Incredible lifts things with his super strength, Mrs Incredible stretches like an elastic gymnast (this is supposed to be a children's game, for God's sake), and siblings Dash and Violet speed and sneak, respectively. Enemies and obstacles in the levels are tailored to the various characters' needs. Playing The Incredibles feels pretty much like colouring in by numbers.

INCREDIBLY... basic!

'The Incredibles' Screenshot 2

And there we have the incredible problem. Once you get over the initial fireworks, which really are suitably impressive, The Incredibles settles into a round of, "Oh, it's a Mr Incredible stage. I'm going to be lifting things now." Control issues also blight play, with irritations over directional changes and the deliverance of superpowers quickly leading to a resigned frustration. Considering this is where the game was always going to stand or fall, it's an annoying, if not wholly unexpected, disappointment. There's also a badly implemented lock-on feature, which drops itself for some unexplained reason after you pick weapons up. It could have been better.

Also, the boss battles present a surprisingly difficult challenge, so children are likely to struggle in the harder moments. It all looks and sounds fantastic, but there's the inescapable image of little Jimmy hurling the pad at the screen through a veil of tears because Dash can't stop in the racing levels, or Violet simply runs out of Incredible Power juice (this is represented as a meter) and can't sneak her way to the end of the level. Again.

It's a shame. Children's games can be done better than this. Shark Tale was enjoyable and far better designed from a control perspective, possibly because there was only one central character, although that too boiled down to repeating a set of ideas in rotation until a fairly short completion.

Incredulous

The Incredibles is strictly for kids, and again solely for those that go nuts for the movie. The thrill of taking control of the family in action is soon soured by some nasty control and camera glitches, but youngsters who can't get enough of seeing Mrs Incredible stretch herself around won't really care about the finer points of directional play. Why would they? They'll be full of turkey and squabbling over the controller. If that's all you're after from The Incredibles, go ahead and buy.

If you want more, really don't. Apart from some competent use of blinding source material, The Incredibles weighs in as a real shame.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

4 / 10

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About Patrick Garratt

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Comments (20) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DaM #1 7 years ago

    Well I've only vaguely heard of it...maybe I'm good at ignoring this sort of thing!
    Am I the only person who is not in the slight bit interested in things like this?
    Edited by 1 at 21/12/04 @ 13:11

  • mash the x button #2 7 years ago

    The film was excellent, absolutely amazing!

  • Mr_Sleep #3 7 years ago

    "but youngsters who can't get enough of seeing Mrs Incredible stretch herself around won't really care about the finer points of directional play"

    I'm not sure that is entirely youngsters who woul go for that kind of thing ;)

    "Am I the only person who is not in the slight bit interested in things like this?"

    You'd probably be surprised by the reading demographic of Eurogamer, having a review about something that parents might buy for their kids seems like a pretty good idea to me.

  • urban #4 7 years ago

    the movie wasnt exactly dancing either

  • RedboX #5 7 years ago

    TRUE STORY:

    A co-worker of mine has two kids (5 and 7), she took them to see Shark Tail a few weeks ago and then they pestered her endlessely that they wanted the (dire) game for thier PS2, and eventualy she bought them it.

    The other weekend she took them to see The Incredibles, and surprise, surprise her kids wanted the game, as it was coming upto Christmas she told her kids that it was sold out everywhere, thinking she whould get them it as present.

    So imagine her surprise it recive an email over the weekend telling her she'd won a copy of The game on Ebay. It seems her 7 year old child , while she was out, had logged into her desktop PC, then into Ebay and placed a £500 bid (to make sure he won it) on the first copy of the game he found.

    She ended up paying £50odd (after shipping) for the game.


    Edited by 1 at 21/12/04 @ 13:48

  • asphaltcowboy #6 7 years ago

    The film was suuuuuuuuuuuuuperb! Not really interested in the game at all.

  • RedboX #7 7 years ago

    Shes not at all pleased, specialy as she has two copys of the game now, Child is not getting either for Xmas it seems, and apparently has to pay off the debt, but I suspect hes due for a windfall in xmas money from relatives so he'll be ok.

  • drumbaby #8 7 years ago

    £500 worth of slippering to follow.

  • Spanky #9 7 years ago

    The demo on OXBM last month was awful, fighting was ropey, then they added this on rails shooter bit, not telling you your objectives or priorities. Shoddy.

  • Sid-Nice #10 7 years ago

    Why does Patrick get all the good games to review? :)

  • Homer Simpson #11 7 years ago

    You have a point there Sid, I didn't notice until you just pointed that out! :)

  • DaM #12 7 years ago

    I'm not happy about the crap games are OK for kids concept... my eight month old will only get quality games for his import DS!
    I am fairly sure I'll still be into games when he is old enough to care (27 years and counting so far...), so will be buying quality for him.

    Mind you I quite enjoyed ET on the Atari....

  • luisalis #13 7 years ago

    Taito's Superman arcade game was great.

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #14 7 years ago

    Holy shit! Pat is the new me! :p

  • beep #15 7 years ago

    Notch another one for mediocre use of a film license in a game.

  • tengu #16 7 years ago

    The film ruled, but this is just shit. Avoid.

  • The-Bodybuilder #17 7 years ago

    "She ended up paying £50odd (after shipping) for the game."

    It's a whopping the kid be wanting.

  • RedboX #18 7 years ago

    It's a whopping the kid be wanting

    thats what I said, but apparently she dont belive in punishment

    Kids these days!

  • Royal Fool #19 7 years ago

    Actually, there's been really no hype for this movie here in Iceland... the theatres decided to premiere the film on the 26th of December. Utter crap if you ask me, Pixar fans deserve better treatment than a 2 month delay.

    I mean, what the hell... there's all sorts of Incredibles merchandise in stores and the supermarkets, but when the kids see it they're just like "What's this Incredibles thing? Some new cartoon?".

    Stupid, stupid theatres.

  • Grom #20 7 years ago

    "It all looks and sounds fantastic, but there's the inescapable image of little Jimmy hurling the pad at the screen through a veil of tears because Dash can't stop in the racing levels, or Violet simply runs out of Incredible Power juice (this is represented as a meter) and can't sneak her way to the end of the level. Again."

    UH OH