The hundreds of heroes and villains that make up the Marvel Comics universe have drawn in fans of all ages for 70 years, and the target market of everyone is what developer THQ was hoping to hit with its new game “Marvel Super Hero Squad.”
“Marvel Super Hero Squad” is based on “The Super Hero Squad Show,” a kid-friendly cartoon where adorable versions of Iron Man and other big-time Marvel heroes try to stop Doctor Doom and the Lethal Legion from rebuilding the Infinity Sword and taking over Superhero City. It’s basically a “Muppet Babies” version of the Marvel universe.
The game follows the same basic plot with players choosing kiddie versions of their favorite Marvel heroes to stop Doctor Doom’s latest bid for world domination. The game was created to make some extra money off the show, and you can definitely tell that a fast buck was all the developers were after.
“Super Hero Squad” plays like something that was quickly thrown together to tie into the show’s launch. The game is full of weird problems that a little extra effort easily could have fixed, and they all add up to make a pretty frustrating experience.
The first, and probably biggest, example of the laziness involved in this game’s production is the cut scenes, which aren’t always really cut scenes.
The characters don’t always actually move in the “Super Hero Squad” cut scenes. So, sometimes cut scenes consist of static graphics of characters like Doctor Doom and MODOK standing around, while dialogue plays over the image.
This could perhaps be written off as THQ trying to acknowledge the game’s comic book roots by going for some kind of talking comic panel thing. But, since this game is actually based off of a cartoon, the entire concept of which is that drawings are running around doing things, the whole honoring-the-comics idea seems kind of stupid.
“Superhero Squad” doesn’t improve any once the actual game play starts. Operating your heroes isn’t really that difficult as the controls are pretty standard, but a horrible targeting system makes taking out your enemies overly difficult.
For long-range attacks, like hurling Thor’s hammer or unleashing the Silver Surfer’s power cosmic, players aim at their foes by pointing the Wii-mote at the screen and firing. While this is a pretty cool idea on paper, the game’s targeting system isn’t really accurate, so repulser blasts and enchanted mallets end up missing their targets on a pretty consistent basis.
The most frustrating thing about “Marvel Super Hero Squad” is that the makings of a pretty solid game are all there, but nobody took the time to actually make that game happen. A little extra effort could have easily made this game into a nice little brother to Activision’s “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” series, which basically took the same concept of team-based superhero gameplay and made it for big kids.
Instead, poor young gamers are left with an overly difficult, hastily produced game that’s far more frustrating than it is fun.
adamziegler@dailynebraskan.com
Title: Marvel Super Hero Squad
Publisher: THQ
Platform: Wii
Price: $39.99
Grade: D+
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