Incredibles, The for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

The Incredibles, the latest Pixar flick to make the jump from theater screen to TV screen, has the makings of a solid action game. It features a nuclear family brimming with fantastic super powers, all sorts of maniacal contraptions and Pixar's unique brand of stylistic humor.

Not only does each member of the Incredibles household boast their own powers, but each also comes pre-packaged with great personality from the movie. Taking all these elements into account, the success of The Incredibles game adaptation depends on a few key areas.

Did the personality of the movie survive the development process? Have the developers (in this case Heavy Iron Studios) made the best of the character's exclusive super powers? Does the titular band of heroes control well? And most importantly, do all the different elements coalesce into one satisfying game experience?

To start, the The Incredibles sticks to the plot of its theatrical counterpart. In fact, part of the reason why the game's publisher, THQ, was a little shy about sending advanced copies to video game publications was to keep the plot a mystery.

Even better, the game mirrors the look and feel of the movie, with faithful recreations of characters, and environments. It even does a good job of exploiting the different super powers, with each of the characters acting as the stars of their very own stages.

Mr. Incredible features super strength, letting him lift insanely heavy objects. He can also bash through walls and pick up furniture to throw at enemies. If there's nothing to pick up, he can pick up enemies to throw at other enemies as well. Mrs. Incredible, has far more reaching abilities. As though made of taffy, she can stretch her limbs to grab enemies and to swing across chasms. Mrs. Incredible also performs a spinning attack capable of taking down several enemies at once.

The offspring of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible boast their own powers as well. Violet, the emaciated daughter of the family, conjures an invisible force field to protect her from harm. What's more, she can turn invisible and sneak past vigilant enemies. And Dash, the youngest of the Incredible clan, can run so fast his feet catch on fire.

Each character stars in their very own stages, with challenges and enemies in each catering to specific powers. Mr. Incredible performs plenty of heavy lifting and bashing of enemies, for example, while Dash spends all of this time throttling through busy streets or enemy infested jungles. Beanpole Violet uses her powers of invisibility to sneak past guards, since any kind of physical exertion could possibly shatter her delicate limbs into a thousand pieces. Later in the game, Violet and Dash join forces to create the Incredi-Ball, a fast moving sphere of energy.

Each of the stages plays radically different. As stated, Dash primarily races around avoiding obstacles and trying to beat the clock, since he's always under a pressing time limit. When controlling Mrs. Incredible, you'll spend most of your time using her stretch powers to swing around the environment and attack enemies from afar.

Playing as Mr. Incredible is as old-school platformer as you can get, as all he does is beat people up and activate switches using his super strength. The Incredibles also lets you take command of stationary turrets and blast enemy structures to smithereens.

You can also steal a few enemy vehicles and blast enemies during a few rail shooter segments. These sections control well and offer a decent amount of visceral fun. While few and far between, they break up the platform action and help add a little diversity to the game.

Sadly, that's where the good stuff ends. Once you get past the initial rush of using the super powers, and after you peel back the cinematic aspects of The Incerdibles, all that remains is an average platformer plagued by a number of issues. Take control for example.

It really doesn't matter if a game looks and sounds like a perfect translation of a movie if the characters don't control well. You'll just find yourself laughing at the cutscenes or funny character animations, only to turn around and blurt a string of obscenities after dying from wonky controls.

Whenever Mr. Incredible throws a punch, his entire body follows the flow of his fists. It feels as though his hands weigh 500 pounds. Whenever he misses a punch, which can happen quite often, he's left vulnerable on all sides as he recovers from his attack. Since Mr. Incredible is constantly surround by a horde of enemies, he ends up taking a lot of unnecessary damage. None of the attacks from normal enemies delivers much damage, but that's not really the point.

To perform Mr. Incredible's signature roll, players need to crouch, point the thumbstick in a direction and then hit the jump button. Thing is, you only really need to use the roll during very specific parts of the game -- parts where timing is crucial. Add the game's general lack of responsiveness with the funky button scheme, and you'll end up take serious damage, especially during boss fights. Different problems appear when playing as Mrs. Incredible. In her case, she needs to stop whenever she wants to reach out and grab an assailant. She can perform a kick combo while running, letting her take down a number of foes at once, but her attacks still suffer from unresponsive control.

When attacking from the front, it's difficult to spin around and attack from behind. Also, the game uses a finicky lock-on feature, forcing you to miss punches and throws constantly. The camera will target an enemy, only to lose the lock after you've picked up a desk and are vulnerable to attack. This sort of thing doesn't happen once or twice, but constantly. During the racing sequences with Dash, controlling the little speed demon feels floaty, as though he's always running underwater. Plus, he can't stop at all, so there's a good chance gamers will need to memorize each "track" by playing them a few times.

Violet's stages play out like stealth missions, with her invisibility powers really coming into play. Too bad her powers don't last very long, as vanishing greatly taxes her Incredible power meter. All of the characters have their own Super Power, which requires Incredible energy, gauged by a meter on the upper left hand of the screen. Like other pick ups in the game such as health and bonus items (icons which unlock clips from the movie and other extras), Incredible power is generously littered throughout the game.

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