Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects – Review

Anyone who is a fan of Marvel is going to look at this title on the shelf and feel compelled to buy it. It seems to have everything you could want in a comic book based game, super heroes, new superheroes (The Imperfects) and tons of fighting and interactive backgrounds that you can bash up as you’re on the move. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is. Sadly, although this title seems to have all the core ingredients for a brilliant duelling game on the DS, something just isn’t quite right with it. Let me explain further.

The background story of this game is basically that you can play in either arcade mode or play now mode. Arcade mode is what we would normally term ‘story mode’. This is the place where you can earn unlockables by taking the character of your choice through a variety of scenarios, that all implore you to save the city of where else, but New York. As you do so, you’ll basically be pitted against a number of ‘Imperfects’, who are all out to stop your obvious domination on the good citizen role. You will be able to bet on how well you think you’ll do in each bout and the more game people who like to bet large will win better prizes at the end of each fight. The reasoning behind these wagers is that you then save up what you win and use it to unlock more characters, extra costumes and art from the comic books. You will feel urged to do this because you only have 3 playable characters at the beginning of the game. Trust me, it’s not enough and you’ll get bored of them easily. The other option of playing ‘play now’ is as it sounds. You jump right into the game and it’s you in a head to head battle with the other characters. You get to choose the arena and the character but there’s only a few to choose from anyway. You can of course play this game against another player but since it’s multi card wireless play I think you’ll be hard pushed to find anyone who has it near you. It’s not a game like Mario Kart where everyone that owns a DS will have it. The gameplay is fine but it becomes boring. It’s the same thing again and again and you are basically just bouncing around flailing wildly. The AI isn’t that brilliant either. Not a good start really.

Now, some DS games have such an outstanding control system that you are simply smiling with glee at the way they’ve used the touch screen. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects sadly isn’t one of these titles. I was completely baffled by the choice of buttons and touch screen interaction used on this title. Basically, you’ll button bash your way through the game, pulling off ‘special moves’ and various other run of the mill moves such as jumping punching, kicking and so on. The stupid part is that as you’re button bashing, you’re then expected to use the touch screen also for certain fighting attacks such as web swing or flight. No, no, no. It just doesn’t work. It’s infuriating and it leaves you wondering why they’ve added this, other than to say that it uses the touch screen in game play, which still seems to be a selling point for the DS.

The really sad thing is that this game could have been great fun. It could have been a sharp little fighting title. The graphics are okay, they’re not ground breaking in anyway, but they’re bright and colourful. The problem is that there’s just no depth to these graphics. There are characters that look sort of… unfinished and at times they appear to float in mid air or be caught between solid objects. It’s just not what you expect from EA who have some excellent titles out there on the DS. If some of these points had been ironed out, it could have saved the game a little, as the background environments are actually pretty decent and they allow you to interact with them. They’re 3D so you can take some joy in running around and ripping apart certain areas and using them.

The sound on this title is again, just ok. It’s got some good sound effects for the characters but they’re used again and again so it takes away from their originality. The musical score sounds orchestral so this is a little different and is one of the highlights. The game has subtitles to explain what is happening during arcade mode so deaf gamers can also participate in this game should they choose to. Overall, there’s no real need to have that much sound anyway as you’re ultimately doing the same thing over and over.

Now, onto something very positive! The female gamer can be pleased that EA haven’t skimped on female characters. There are plenty to choose from including, Storm, Elektra and others. They’re scantily clad for the most part so that’s a little irritating but then all female superheroes do seem to be anyway. You can play these characters, but only once you’ve unlocked them. This is the annoying bit. You can’t play any female characters from the start. They’re not sad pathetic wimps either and you’ll be as likely to win with them as you will with the male characters.

Overall, this game just didn’t work for me. I found it tedious and boring and I just couldn’t get into it. The irritating controls and the overall unimaginative play just seemed to be something that belonged on a budget title. Even people who are big fans of Marvel will struggle with this game and will probably get most joy from unlocking the artwork. Yes, it has a ton of characters to play with, so that can keep it going a little longer, but when they’re all doing the same thing, why bother playing? Sorry to say this is one of the worst DS games I’ve played and I usually love EA titles. Hopefully this one will be swept under the carpet and we’ll get another good title from them soon.

Review by Tracy