An underappreciated continuation of Disney&Pixar's movie, "The Incredibles". Easy 2 learn + ACTION!
Storyline – 9/10 (A-):
In the Disney&Pixar movie entitled "The Incredibles", The Parr family, a family with super-human abilities, becomes tasked with saving the world once again after ceasing to do so for fifteen years. Towards the end of the movie, the Parr family casually exits the Metroville city-stadium, and congratulates their son, Dash Parr, for earning second place in his track meet. Suddenly, a giant drill rises from the ground, and a short, tubby hooded villain arises. His name is the Underminer, and he "declares war" against the city of Metroville. The movie concludes with the Incredibles suiting up to combat the Underminer, although they never show the battle that takes place.
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer video game, features exactly what's in its name; the game tells the story of the Parr family once again donning their Incredible uniforms and fighting the Underminer. In other words, the game starts off directly where the official movie ends, so I personally found the game's story very enthralling, due to it expanding where the movie left off. I have always greatly enjoyed watching the Incredibles movie, by Disney&Pixar, and being able to see the Parr family back in action, with a new plot, was truthfully a huge delight.
With that being said, however, the story is all that the game features. Once you complete the story mode, you have the option of replaying it again, for as many times as you want. However, there are no additional features, so the game may appear to lack sufficient content.
Environmental Design – 9/10 (A-)
The game has many admirable qualities in environmental design: the way the fictional world and story of the Incredibles was brought to life and seen through an LED screen. First and foremost, the game is broken up into various "levels" or segments that the player must walk across to progress in the game. Each level is filled with a variety of obstacles and small puzzles. Notably, there are minor obstacles, such as conveyor belts, that merely confuse your movement, and small ledges and openings, which require the player to jump over and under to progress. There are also hostile and intimidating obstacles, notably acid pipes spewing lethal chemicals, drills and boulders that all cause damage and therefore need to be avoided. All of these obstacles are known as "environmental hazards".
In addition to these environmental hazards, there are also puzzles that need to be solved in order to progress. In some levels, there may appear an impenetrable barrier, which prevents progression. The player must locate a hidden switch to turn off the barrier. Other puzzles allow players to collect tokens that are hidden in each level. Although not required to progress into the game's story, tokens will contribute to a higher score at the end, making the game slightly competitive with friends.
Last of all, all environments in this game are 3-D. More specifically, since the game visually illustrates depth, the player may move farther or nearer into the environment.
With that being said, however, it is crucial to know that there is no complete freedom of movement in this game. The player has no choice but to move simply from left to right, and reach the end of the level on the far right. Therefore, it is understandable if one concludes that this game is overly simplistic.
Intuitiveness: 9/10 (A-)
The game features only two playable characters from the movie: Mr. Incredible, the strongest superhero, and Frozone, a superhero who can control cold temperature. Despite having merely two characters to utilize, the game makes very, very full use of both. More specifically, many puzzles in the game can only be solved by utilizing the appropriate character. First and foremost, both characters are available to use from the start of the game, and can be summoned with a button on the screen. Mr. Incredible, as mentioned, is a super-strong character. Therefore, the players must use Mr. Incredible to lift heavy walls and pound holes in certain, marked areas to progress. In certain areas, however, there is nothing you can destroy to progress. For example, many levels feature acid pipes that spew lethal acid. If Mr. Incredible touches it with his fists, he will take damage. Therefore, the player must switch to and use Frozone to freeze these acid pipes, so that they cease to drip acid. In other cases, a player will need to use Frozone to form blocks of ice. These blocks of ice can be used as stair-steps, which help the player climb ledges that are too high to jump onto.
The main point of listing the various abilities each character possesses is to emphasize how many things only two characters can do. Therefore, the game is very intuitive.
Action – 9/10 (A-): This is the category this game is all about. While progressing through each level, you will encounter a massive amount of enemies. These enemies are robot soldiers, deployed by the Underminer, and therefore need to be destroyed in order to progress. First and foremost, there are, incredibly, many variations of enemy-robots. More specifically, the player will come across weak robots, strong robots, defensive robots, extremely strong, defensive and slow robots, bomb robots, bomb-deploying robots, and drill- robots, in total. These varying robots will appear in different quantities and types throughout the game, so you probably wouldn't get bored of constantly smashing them. Speaking of "smashing them", there are a variety of methods to destroy the robots. Mr. Incredible can punch, kick, and slam the ground, while Frozone can throw ice blocks and freeze the robots. Therefore, along with various types of enemies, there are also various ways to destroy those enemies, making the game very entertaining.
With that being said, however, the game features extremely little change of pace. As you progress through the dozens of levels, you are constantly smashing robots and solving simple puzzles; after forty or so levels, it is understandable if the game starts to get contrived and repetitive.
Final Grade: 8.5 (B+):
Despite the intolerable lack of content, repetitiveness, and lack of free movement, the game has many admirable qualities. The one fact that this game was an attempt to bring back the lives of the Incredibles is truly an excitement to me. It was obvious that the developers of this game put a lot of thought into creating each level, despite repetitiveness, as well as varying the limited content that it has. Overall, my impression, when completing this game was a positive one. My position is that the Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is an Incredibly underappreciated game.