Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: It is a video game based on a highly-anticipated summer blockbuster movie, but it is not good. Okay, it is nothing new in the video game industry to have bad movie-based games. In fact, it seems to be the industry norm. The few good games based on movie properties tend to be flukes. The same can be said for games based on superheroes. (Superman on the Nintendo 64. The horror. The horror.) Sadly, Activision’s game based on the Marvel Comics superheroes Fantastic 4 and their new movie is solidly in the norm column. Buggy and uninteresting, Fantastic 4 for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube game consoles just barely lives up to the mediocrity that was its movie inspiration.

In Fantastic 4 the player will take on the role of the Marvel Comics superheroes of the same name. Each of the heroes has their own special powers that were obtained when the group was exposed to cosmic rays. Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, leads the group and has the ability to stretch and twist himself in ways that would make a pretzel green with envy. Sue Storm, a.k.a. the Invisible Woman, can (naturally) turn invisible and generate force fields. Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch, has the ability to fly and launch flaming projectiles when he is in his flaming state. Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing, (who got the worst of the deal since he can’t even pass for normal like the others) is immensely strong and very nearly invulnerable with his stony skin.

During the game the player will be given anywhere from one to all four of the characters to tackle the various levels and enemies with. When additional characters are available, the player can freely change between them in order to exploit their various powers as different situations arise by tapping the directional pad in the appropriate direction to choose the desired character.

Fantastic 4 can trace its gameplay mechanics to the old level-based beat 'em-ups in the vein of Double Dragon, and Fantastic 4 even allows two players to play at the same time cooperatively, just as in the venerable Double Dragon. As the player fights the bad guys, he will use simple fighting combos, grabs/throws and "Cosmic Power" attacks that use the special talents of each of the team members. For instance, the Thing is a close-in grappling fighter that can snatch up a car and throw it, while the Human Torch is better when used in a ranged-attack mode. Each of the character’s special abilities can also be upgraded as the player moves through the game, making them ever-more-deadly fighters.

If all this superhero stuff sounds cool to you, it is. The game pretty nicely captures the essence of the Fantastic 4 characters. Where the game starts to lose it is in the execution of the gameplay. To start with, the camera is abominable. All too often I could not see the enemy I was fighting or the direction I was moving in. This was especially true when there where many enemies on the screen. There is a control to realign the camera, but it quickly wanders back to the drunk-orangutan view that it seems most comfortable with. There is also a sporadically-working targeting control that should turn the camera toward the enemy but often decides it won't. Besides, in the heat of a fight is the last time you want to be fooling around with the camera control and taking your hands off the face buttons. And to make things worse, even when not in combat, the camera takes it into its brain to wander off and show you the things you don’t need to see.

The combat also gets repetitive very quickly. Most of the fighting involves taking out large numbers of the villain pawns. You have got to be amazed that there are any innocent civilians running around with this many minions in the villain ranks. (It seems their recruiters can make their quotas.) Also punctuated throughout the main game are various boss fights. Where the movie only has Dr. Doom as the villain, the Fantastic 4 game adds in other villains that will be familiar to the comic fans, like Blastarr and Annihilus, in order to pad the game out and give it a more play time. The repetitiveness of the fighting might not have been so bad if the game had also offered a little more freedom in how to play. It is highly structured and some elements play out more as movies than actual game; only requiring the player to position the team members in specified places and then watching the action happen.

Graphically the game is only so-so. The characters look alright, but their animation is just not quite up to par. The environments are lackluster and not very detailed. I saw several enemies stuck in walls. The framerate can also be a little erratic at times. The audio lacks any real punch. There are some nice unlockable bonus items in the game, especially if you are a comics fan. They are something worth playing for.

Overall, Fantastic 4 continues the proud tradition of mediocrity set by the majority of both movie-based and superhero games. It is sad that such great superheroes as the Fantastic 4 should catch the double whammy of average movie and game. It is also unfortunate that the casual gamer, who is making many of his buying decisions based solely on his recognition of a license, is going to get stuck with this gobbler.