The 90’s were a great time to be alive, I’m thankful that I had my teenage years and early twenties during them. Had I known that I was living in one of the greatest eras I may have been more mindful to take my time and smell the roses. As it is I have great memories of this era, a majority of the best memories are from when my parents and I would go to the San Diego Comic-Con, before it got hijacked by all the movies and all the comic books were forgotten. I had a PlayStation in 1998 and I can’t believe that I missed out on this version of the Fantastic Four, don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled I didn’t pay $39.99 for this hot garbage, but I bought up as many comic book video games as I could. I’m thankful I only paid five dollars for this puppy because that is about all that it is worth. I’m surprised Marvel let this be released, I really am.
Even though this is a comic book video game and sometimes the stories in the comic books are flimsy, this one is insanely flimsy. Basically, Dr. Doom creates a device that transports the Fantastic Four and She-Hulk, she must have been at the Baxter Building, to different locales to fight different mainstay villains. You get to fight the Molemen and see their home-world, you have a nice little vacation with the Skrulls, say “hello” to Prince Namor and eventually get to see the sights in Latveria. It’s nice that they spiced up the locations you get to see, but it doesn’t save how bad this game is.
The controls are pretty decent, but the punch detection needed a lot more work. This game is a four player (if you have the adapter) brawler that would be pretty fun with friends; however, when going solo it gets frustrating and boring. You can play as one of five characters and each one of them has a special move, you can be Johnny Storm, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Invisible Woman, and She-Hulk. If you have the four player adapter you and three buddies can rock this short game out in a few hours, if not less. However, you need to know the controls, Circle is block, Square is punch, X is powerful attack and Triangle is jump. They aren’t hard to learn, what you really need to grasp is the 3D in the game since it plays like Final Fight or any other side-scrolling brawler. Lots of your punches will not land because you are not lined up properly with your enemy, this will get you killed fast seeing as the enemy A.I. knows exactly where you are. If you can overcome this, the game becomes slightly more enjoyable, but don’t hold your breath.
For a 1997 game, it actually aged pretty decently. Yes, the enemies don’t really vary but from level to level, but the main characters look good on the screen and the brief cut-scenes you get are done quite well. The coolest aspect of the game that I found was the music. The developers decided to go with a 70’s type grindhouse style of music. You feel pretty badass as you watch the opening cut-scene and hear that music that puts you right in the 70’s. This music does make sense though, in the late 90’s the nostalgia level for the 1970’s was at an all-time high. The Star Wars Special Edition was in the theatres, That 70’s Show was soon to debut, so why not take advantage of that in a video game? It worked though and it is one of the best parts of this game.
The only thing that made this game worthwhile to me is the feelings of nostalgia as I played it. This game took me right back to the 90’s and my lovely misspent youth. I wish I could tell you that this is the Fantastic Four game that you’ve always wanted, but I would be lying. If you want a good Fantastic Four gameplay Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance and chose the proper characters, then imagine it is your very own Fantastic Four game. I really don’t see any reason for anyone to go out of their way to find this game, it is a nice novelty especially if you have the four controller adapter and four patient friends. But other than that this would be a great waste of money and shelf space. Let us be very happy the Rocksteady brought licensed games into the future and made them something to be reckoned with.