Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Still, it’s a solid rental and a good way to spend some time having a bit of fun. If you really want to kick ass as the Fantastic 4, go play Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Controls-wise, the game is near-identical to "X-Men Legends." [Aug 2007, p.108]

There was a wealth of material here that it seems the dev team tried to cram into the story. Instead of a well-scripted tale, this game is a random (repetitive) level run that loosely fits some story, if you can find and hold on to the main thread.

Lack of online and sketchy graphics headline the game’s serious flaws while the wonky co-op camera almost kills the idea of any type of multi-player action.

Compared to the competition, RotSS feels more like a side story that borrows just enough gameplay elements to provide fan service for those who can't get enough of the film, but as a game, it's not much of a leap from an expensive bag of stale popcorn at the theater.

The bottom line is you never feel like you're the Fantastic 4. Instead, you're a big orange tank and three kick boxers who know some magic tricks.

Fantastic Four isn’t bad in the sense that it’s incredibly buggy or overly frustrating. It’s just mind-numbingly mundane. And the thinly veiled attempts at character customization aren’t enough to make the game any less boring.

There's nothing inherently broken with the game, and until it fizzles out at the end the story's not bad, but the gameplay is so contrived and repetitive that it's unlikely anyone will garner much enjoyment from the game.

The only saving grace that this game has is its combat mechanic. By no means is it good, but it’s competent, and successful in making you feel like you clocked someone pretty hard. If you have some friends over, you can delve into four-player co-op. However, like a friend who picks out a crappy movie, there’s a good chance that your buddies will mock you for this spirit-crushing game for the remainder of your days.

Even franchise fans should be wary, because this game has fantastically little to offer. [Sept 2007, p.84]

The whole thing is just completely unexciting and even laborious at times.

The bland environments, boring stages, repetitive enemies, and easily exhausted powers make the Fantastic Four feel more like a fantastic chore or just a fantastic bore.

Despite an entire review's worth of problems, Fantastic Four isn't a complete loss. It has some nice-looking effects ("flaming on," specifically), a decent joke or two, and some nice extras to unlock (old Fantastic Four comic covers, alternate costumes, etc.), but it's just not compelling in any of the basic areas it needs to be.

Some decent ideas do fight there way to the surface. [Aug 2007, p.68]

The game only takes six hours to beat but yet it costs nearly 60 dollars. I’ll let you do the math.

In fact, it’s repetitive and (quickly) becomes boring. Regardless of the enemy, expect a lot of walking around, smashing, taking of elevators to the next floor, more walking around, and more smashing and more … well, you get the picture.

Technically, it’s fairly solid – the controls work and it looks and sounds OK, but there’s zero fun here.

Fantastic Four fanatics apply only because there isn’t much in this game that will provide endless hours of fun.

We know that plenty of people will look past the monotonous gameplay, poor voice acting, unimaginative level design, lack of online play, etc., but our advice is to hold out for the next movie.

Despite the few things done well in it, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains a bland, poorly-done game.

Worse than the usual mediocre movie spinoffs, which is saying something. Youngsters might have the attention span to find completing the game entertaining, but everyone is better off playing Ultimate Alliance—a vastly superior game.

A dull, uninspired car crash of a game. A complete waste of PlayStation 3's power. [Aug 2007, p.74]

Avoid, as per usual. [Issue#155, p.90]

The only thing fantastic about Rise of the Silver Surfer is the record time you'll make travelling to the store to return it.