Reviewed by Downtown Jimmy
August 21st 2003 
Introduction:
Aquaman is a B-Hero to the comic world. He has never broke through like other heroes such as Batman or Superman, but he continues to strive to be cool, but how cool can a fish man be? Aquaman the game: Battle for Atlantis, shows us just how uncool the fish man is offering nothing more then a basic scripted fighting game.
The Game: Aquaman is set in the underwater world called Atlantis. In the game you will spend most of your time floating in the underwater 3d environment being discombobulated and agitated. When you get your barings straitened out you will have some simple objectives, which never stray far from beat up the bad guy. They try to make it seem like a variation of different missions built in the game, by sending you to rescue civilians, protect building and destroy bombs. In reality its all the same, you will be punching and kicking bad guys forever (20 missions). Remember Final Fight? Double Dragon? This is nothing more than an underwater 3d version of those games.
There is a story in Aquaman, but it’s as dull as the gameplay. The presentation of the cut scenes are in form of a comic book, no voice overs, and allot of text. I didn’t mind this approach, but it does seem like they where skimping out a bit on this one.
The gameplay is based on combos and combat. You have kicks, punches and the grapple. Seems basic? Well it is. Aquaman also has a sonic call that brings sharks and other ocean dwellers to pack a good punch against the evil bringers of the underworld. Nothing like a shark face to the gut. Your fighting skills auto-upgrade throughout the game as you defeat your enemies. The combos will get longer and patience will grow thinner. Look out Virtua Fighter, umm no.
Graphics & Sound: The graphics in Aquaman are dark, dull and uninspiring. Based around a dark grey palette they seem to have no life to them. The textures in the backgrounds are blurred to create the feeling of vision underwater, a nice technique to cut the graphic development in half. It would of be cool, but it’s the same thing over and over. Aquaman has the same enemies and backgrounds throughout the entire game, there is nothing graphically that stands out or that doesn’t repeat itself.
For the sound, it’s really not worth mentioning either. It’s on the same level as the graphics, horrible and no surround support.
|
Innovation: The one redeeming quality is that they pulled off the good underwater feeling to controlling Aquaman which isn’t always easy, but I am assume swimming at the bottom of the ocean wouldn’t be like a belly flop into a pool. The physics of the water are great. The crowning achivement in Aquaman. They have also made it so you can use three comic book hero’s from Aquamans world (Tempest, Black Manta, Classic Aquaman) this is a small bonus, if you would be brave enough to tackle this sucka again. You do it all over with a different main character. Uhh, now that your pumped..?&$@#? Aquaman is unquestionably dry and lacking in innovation. |
Mojo: Uh, what do we have here! Aquaman where has the mojo gone? King of the ocean, you got a cool vibe as a leader of a underground race of fish peeps, but you need to get yourself a new agent! They are making a mockery out of you. I would try and hook up with the Spiderman team... they are making a pile of cash. The best part of Aquaman was the story lines that formed in the way of a comic book, even that grew old fast. Low mojo for the fish man.
Lowdown: Remember the motion picture Waterworld? Now think of a sequel. Err; this is the same pain as undertaking a moment of Aquaman. Although it’s priced low as a budget title, there really isn’t enough to recommend this game. The action is monotonous, uninspiring and under developed. Stay away from Aquaman, and go and buy a goldfish.
Gameplay: 2, Graphics/Sound: 3, Innovation: 3, Mojo: 1. Final: 3 |
