Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Wii Review

Having played the first FF game- back on the good ol' PS2- my expectations were low, until the Wii was released with its unique control scheme and a different game developer at the helm. Now you'd be able to do four players simultaneous this time around, which would make sense- with it being the FANTASTIC FOUR.

The game plays like X-Men Legends lite (as my friend Chris stated). The graphics are nice but nothing to gawk at. Controlling the heroes is easy with the directional pad on the nunchuk and executing attacks with the 'A' button on the remote, in combination with other buttons being held, or tapped in unison. Cosmic (special) attacks are a bit more random causing you to flail the controllers around like you're a 4 year old having a temper tantrum.* Sometimes they work- and then they don't. It can be quite a workout just to see the Thing do a ground smash. Levels are long and monotonous- health is sparse and the catch phrases get to be a bit much. Fun to play with a group to pass the time (which we did before going to see the flick) but don't waste your money.

*Side note- I'm actually getting pretty sick of the Wii. After the rush of WiiSports and WiiPlay, what else is there? The games I've owned I've traded in, in hope the next one would offer tighter controller and response time. Sadly, its never the case. Why is it the only game to offer great control is Rayman: Raving Rabbids? A simple mini-game? C'mon!

The Wii has become the PT Cruiser of game consoles...it started out as a great idea and now the baby boomer generation think its the best thing since sliced bread (now common on cruise ships and retirement homes)- therefore killing any logic and reason from game developers to follow through with the Wiimote/Nunchuk- "They've never played video games before- Like they'll know the difference!" Arrrrghhhh.....

I own more Virtual Console games than Wii games. I own Mario Party 8 and even that disappoints me on occasion. The Wii will only be good at short mini-games and possibly first person shooters (if they don't muck that up too). The Wii is not meant for racing, fighting, or any other game that requires you to use button combos of any nature- Basically, every game you've played up until now. Growing up on 'regular' consoles, I guess I've been spoiled- but this is getting ridiculous. I'm glad I still have my PS2....