The Collection Chamber: FANTASTIC 4

HARNESS THE POWER OF FOUR

One spectacular accident changes four humans into the world's most unique team of super heroes. Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Human Torch and The Thing.
Master an arsenal of superpowers
Fully destructible environments
Combine scorch, stretch, stealth and strike powers against Dr. Doom and other classic villains
Two-player co-op mode

~ from the back of the box

Marvel's first family have been in the news quite a bit of late. They've been hinted at in a fair few of the MCU films and recently Disney revealed a fully-fledged new entry. I'm talking about the Fantastic 4 entering its fourth cinematic adaptation. Before this, it was during their second when they last held any relevance in the zeitgeist and back in 2005, it got a video game adaptation.

The mid-2000s were perhaps the zenith of licenced games, and the sheer amount of the them of questionable quality is probably why we see so few of them now. I scoffed at Fantastic 4 back seeing it as yet another cheap cash cow, but now that I've played it I think I may have been a little too hasty. It's surely no God of War or The Warriors (both of the same year), but for a breezy brawler you could do worse.

	Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) The stretchy man. His attacks not only pack a punch, but have range. Being the top scientist of the bunch, he has the ability to hack into terminals to open doors.
	Ben Grimm (Thing) His rock-hard body makes Thing the strongest member of the group, but also the slowest. If there's anything big that needs carrying or destroying, he's your man.
	Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman) Regardless of whether she'll perform a special move or not, simply holding the Cosmic button will turn her invisible, draining Cosmic Power in the process. She has a bunch of defensive moves, but despite being the weakest of the four, it doesn't mean she can't also pack punch.
	Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) Flaming on Johnny's abilities will give him access to ranged fireballs and even the power of flight. While he's still mostly grounded for this game, his close-range combat is still pretty limited making him one of the more difficult characters to master.

We begin the game in much the same way as the movie. Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and the Storm siblings get into trouble on a space mission where they are zapped with intergalactic rays that give them super powers. We then escape the research facility before going on to calm a rampaging Ben. We won't return to the movie's plot until the very end when Dr. Doom enters the picture. Instead, the next 6 takes us through the New York subway system or an Amazonian jungle to fight classic comic-book villains like the Mole Man or Diablo. It provides a needed variety the movie is lacking, as well as showcasing some nice graphics for the era.

But none of this is any good if the core gameplay isn't fun. I would say it is, just about. Like many beat-'em-ups, the fighting can get stale and repetitive quickly and with little regard for tactical gameplay, most fights are won through button mashing more than anything else. If more than one superhero is on screen, you can switch to them at any time, giving you the option for team up attack. As you beat up more enemies, you will earn points that can be spent to unlock new moves and bonuses at least giving you the illusion of variety.

Defeat enemies to get points and unlock or power up new moves (left).
Mr. Fantastic's hacking mini-game is a little too simple to make it engaging (right).

In truth, your core attacks are available from the very beginning, each assigned to the four face buttons (if you're using a controller that is, which is my preferred way to play). You have a jump, a light attack, a heavy attack and a grab move. Hold the right trigger and each of these will perform a special. Tap the d-pad in the direction of one of your allies, and you'll enact a team attack of ally assist. For example, Sue Storm can cast a shield over her found family in this way. It will not only give them a brief moment of protection during battle, but also allow them to pass through laser protected barriers undetected. It is in these moments where I began to think that actual effort went into this game's design. Solving little puzzles make for interesting breaks from the many beat downs, but if I'm honest I would've liked a lot more. It's a symptom of the game as a whole; packed with interesting ideas, but simply implemented.

Considering you have guys with super strength and fire-powers, the special moves can be a little over-powered. To combat this, they require the use of energy to perform. Called Cosmic Power, it's represented by a blue bar underneath your health gauge. In easy mode, it will slowly increase during quiet moments, but defeated enemies and destroyed environmental furniture will drop orbs to replenish it; green for health, blue for power and gold for super. Super moves are even more powerful attacks that come with some entertainingly goofy animations. These three orbs are the primary collectibles throughout the game, but there is also a single F4 symbol hidden in each stage. This will allow you unlock battle arenas or bonus content accessed from the main menu.

Thing's context-sensitive destruction. Buttons are represented by unrelated icons which take a moment
to realise what it's referring to (left). Mr. Fantastic has uncovered a health orb inside some trash (right).

Like the main game, battle arenas can be played in two-player co-op although as far as I can tell, only local multiplayer is available. From my limited time playing this way, it works pretty well. I must warn you that if you want to alter the controls, you must do so outside of the game itself using the Launcher menu. If you go on to launch the game proper from here, you may run into issues as it likely won't apply the fixes needed to get the game running.

I was expecting Fantastic 4 to be closer to shovelware than be an actual playable game. Fortunately, it is much more than that, though I wouldn't call it a lost classic by any means. I did run into a few janky moments and some rare crashes did occur (though you can complete the game when you reload - something that isn't possible without the fixes). It took me about 5 hours to complete, which is a decent length for a beat-'em-up but I'd be lying if I say tedium didn't set in about halfway through. A good game, then, though not exactly fantastic.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber runs natively on Windows using ThirteenAG's d3d9 wrapper. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 1.99 Gb. Install Size: 2.30 Gb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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