Marvel Nemesis: Rise of The Imperfects
By Will Bartos
Monday. Sep 26, 12:35 AM
Earth's mightiest heroes face their greatest challenge: EA's inability to make up their minds.

Marvel's licenses for their comic books seem to be going everywhere. Activision has the Spider-man and X-Men licenses, and Sierra has The Hulk’s license. Recently, The Hulk had his own game come out, based on the Spider-man 2 engine with fully destructible areas. Spidey's getting another game, based off the Ultimate Spider-man comics, and it’s looking EXTREMELY good.

However, Electronic Arts, the huge juggernaut that they are (no pun intended), has the MARVEL license:a which means they can encompass all the characters into one giant game. So EA has decided to do just that, creating their own super villains to go up against the lot of them. Reminiscent of the old over-the-top “Vs.” series from Capcom, EA set out to make its own game with lots of characters duelling. However, EA seems to be confused as to what kind of game they are creating.

The demo disc only has one real mode in it: versus. So I think "hey, fighting game!" Unfortunately, only two characters are playable from the start: Marvel's own wisecracking superhero Spider-man, and the first of EA's Imperfects, Johnny Ohm. Johnny's rip off of Ed McMahon's famous intro line wasn't very impressive, and his moveset was just as irritating. He had all the makes of a cheap, long-distance fighter, while Spidey seemed to want to get up close and personal to do any real damage.

The control is actually very good. Timing is responsive, and, provided you know what buttons you are pressing, actually give a good fast paced feel. You can attack, jump, block, and pick up/throw objects in the arena that you are in. There's a Rage button that looks like it leads into an instant kill move as well. This fast pace allows a player to just pick up the game and go. Simplicity is good.

However, EA's inabilty to figure out what KIND of game this is hampers the fun. The control feels like a 3D brawling game a la Freedom Force or the newly released Beatdown. However, the fights are contained in arenas, and this conveys an idea of a 3D fighter. I have a feeling they're trying to go for a Power Stone type of feel, and considering I wasn't a huge fan of said title, I might not like this game in the long run, either.

Suffice to say, EA's confusion leads to a game that defeats itself. A button mashing fighting game that seems to be a 3D brawler as opposed to an actual fighter isn't a great formula. Make up your minds, EA! Even then, the cheapness of Johnny Ohm alone makes me think that the game might not be balanced. Beware, comic geeks: this may not be the comic book fighting game you're looking for...

Will Bartos

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