|
By Dan Blomberg on May 20th, 2005
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is one of THQ’s up and coming games that is to be released on Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC. This game was shown to visitors at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2005. I got a chance to play through the demo of the game during my time there and was impressed to say the least. The game begins where the movie, The Incredibles, left off. The Undermine is threatening to take over the world and you, as Mr. Incredible and Frozone (I’ll get to that later) have to save the city and world. This involves beating up lots of evil villain (mole looking machines) and figuring out how to best survive each level. Earlier I said you had to play as Mr. Incredible and Frozone. That is exactly right. You cannot complete the game without using both players. If only one person is playing the computer will help you out but you can switch between Mr. Incredible and Frozone at any time with the push of a button. If you are playing with two people, such as when I played this game, the dynamics of the game are a bit different. If you and your buddy get along things work great, Frozone can handle guys from a rangle and Mr. Incredible can get down and dirty. Frozone does most of the puzzle solving and Mr. Incredible is just that, incredible. Of course, when I played I was Mr. Incredible, makes sense don’t ya think... but that’s not the point. Frozone has to freeze thin air into bridges and freeze obstacles of death that Mr. Incredible cannot get near. On the other hand, Mr. Incredible can do a lot more damage to enemy units than Frozone could ever dream about. They both make a great team. If the game only involved quickly passing each level it would be rather bland, thankfully it is a bit more advanced than that.
As you kill enemies you gain experience points. These points can then be used to upgrade certain things for each player. For example, Mr. Incredible can upgrade his Super Punch and Throw/Slam. Frozone, on the other hand, can increase the range of his ice slide as well as the power of his ice beam. At the time where we played this game Frozone did most of the work by freezing enemies so they couldn’t kill me and I just beat the crap out of everything (or threw it across the level). Because of this I had my character completely upgraded when Frozone was only half way there. The developer we were playing with promised the experience points would be modified to take into account the different role Frozone and Mr. Incredible play. Experience points are a necessity to really survive in the later levels. On the note about later levels, if you complete the game without dying (unlikely) it will unlock a bonus level, keep that in mind for when this game is released. The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is the perfect family game. It is entertaining to play and even entertaining to watch, even to a FPS/RTS twenty year old such as myself. I’d say this game is perfect for all ages and would be most enjoyed by elementary and middle school student and then adults. THQ has done a very good job bringing the brilliance of The Incredibles to the small screen of your home TV. This is definitely a game to keep an eye on.
| 
