Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Like Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel Nemesis is based on the more powerful console versions, which should be on the shelves of your local gaming outlet at the time of writing. It's fair to say that Marvel, as a computer game and movie brand, is currently about as high profile as you can get mostly due to the two incredible Spider-Man movies, this summers Fantastic Four outing and that other flick a couple of years ago with the big green guy (does anyone remember that now?). In case you missed our Ultimate Spider-Man review recently, it's clear Activision are doing great things with the license and if they continue this kind of output who knows what the next offering will turn out like. EA, on the other hand, are quite new to the whole comic book thing and Rise of the Imperfects pits the most legendary Marvel Super Heroes against The Imperfects, a group of Super Heroes created collaboratively by Marvel, EA, and top comic book industry talent, in all-out duels to determine who among them is the most powerful of all. So it all sounds pretty exciting but is it?

Gameplay

You can attack Rise of the Imperfect in one of two different ways the 'play now' or 'arcade mode' The first is a simple head to head battle with you choosing the characters and arena although only a handful are available at the beginning. In order to unlock everything you'll need to be successful in the 'arcade mode' which is really the heart and soul of the game. This takes you through what would better be described as a Story Mode with your chosen character racing around New York sorting out the more mischievous Imperfects. The outcome of some of these meetings can be bet on before hand and the more you wager the greater your prize at the end. That said it's generally a case of 'win one battle and it's onto the next'. The credits earned from these bouts then allow you to unlock more areas and characters in the ‘play now' section, but you can also unlock exclusive comic book art and extra costumes if you so wish. Unfortunately that's it and not only is their little in the way of game variety but the multiplayer suffers from the same problems as the single player game with the only advantage being the slightly improved AI depending on your opponent, of course.

Controls

Awkward, simplistic and unintuitive. If you need more than this just try playing it for any time at all without wondering 'what's the point'. To make matters worse whole thing is bug ridden with a fair amount of gameplay flaws and that's before we even mention the appalling enemy AI.

Graphics

While this won't quite grab the award for the worst looking game we've seen this year it does come incredibly close and there a simply too many short comings here to mention in this brief review. For starters the developers have done away with all the neat lighting effects from the console versions clearly aware that this would drain the processing power a little too much. There are then the rather awkwardly animated characters that occasionally float in mid-air thanks to the poorly designed arenas and collision detection. In fact, the whole thing comes off looking like a cheap B-movie you just get the impression that this wasn't what the developers were aiming for and given the fact that this is a full price title it's certainly not what you'll want. The only savior is the games 3D engine, which the various arenas are built on allowing for full destructible environments. All this is ‘too little too late' though and you never be playing long enough to appreciate the thought that has gone into this area of the game.

Sound

I'd have to say that the soundtrack is one of the highlights of this game if not THE highlight and the orchestral score feels very much like it belongs in a big screen outing. Unfortunately the whole thing comes crashing down to earth as soon as you hear the rather generic sound effects, which are recycled for many of the characters.

Dual screen

This is almost none existent with the touch screen only controlling the flight or web-swing and that's only when it's available. We've reviewed some games before where the use of the dual screen has been a definite after though but the developers here just don't appear to of cared or even fully understood what it was for.

Final comments

Having played this on the back of the wonderful Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel Nemesis was always going to have to be something special unfortunately the reality is just about as bad as it gets. Sloppy controls and unimaginative game design plagues the whole package and it's only a DS owner with a truly warped sense of fun will derive any enjoyment from this EA release. On the plus side there is some nice unlock able artwork and an impressive 18 playable characters it's just that you actually have to play the game in order to unlock them. The fact is the whole thing is so poorly constructed it's difficult to even advise you to rent it but as far as actually handing over hard earned cash, well let's just say don't do it! You have been warned.

Pro: Loads of Playable Characters
Con: Awful Controls
Final score: 3.5

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