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Don't worry. I'm not gonna do what everyone thinks I'm gonna do, and just praise Pixar
for five minutes. Though I could do that. But here's the shocker...I'm not a big fan
of The Incredibles. It's, like, the only Pixar movie I didn't fall in love with. Well, that
and Cars, but...Cars isn't even a movie. It's, like...a Pixar commercial. For Pixar toys.
And speaking of things that aren't that great but are produced to make a sh*t load of money,
anyway...this is video game based on a movie. It's The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer.
So this game was released in 2005, a year after The Incredibles hit theaters. As you
might expect, it came to virtually every platform imaginable at the time, including...the Game
Boy Advance, which is the version we're playing here. On the GBA, it's a 2D platformer with
three worlds and about twice as many enemies.
So that's the kind of game it's gonna be.
You play as both Mr. Incredible and Frozone, switching between them whenever you need to.
So it's a tag-team platformer, kind of like Donkey Kong Country. With a lot less awesome,
included. Anyway, the game picks up right after the events of the film, with the Underminer
showing up and being a real jerk about things.
Short story shorter, time to button mash.
Obviously, each character is different. Mr. Incredible is the powerhouse of the two, so
he's able to lift heavy gates and smash stuff. While Frozone is faster and more nimble. He
can also freeze enemies in their steps. Oh, uh...and he can pretty much fly across the
levels, when he wants to. And he can make steps, out...of...ice.
But hey...Mr. Incredible sure is a big...guy.
Point is, even though it's a tag-team platformer, it's kind of not. You spend about 90 percent
of the game as Frozone. You only switch to Mr. Incredible when he has to lift something
heavy or smash a computer. Otherwise, he's basically useless. And for a game in which
repetition is a serious problem, making one of its two characters a situational character
seems like...kind of a bad move.
Speaking of repetition, though...holy sh*t, this game's repetitive. You get the same handful
of enemies, repeatedly, over the game's three different worlds. That's it. There are three
worlds. There's an ice world, a factory and a more different factory. And each one has
the same enemies, which you attack the same way, over and over. Until you realize, "Wait,
why am I even playing this? I could be doing any number of things."
"Like...drawing dragons."
So the game's really short and shallow, but...it's not like what's there is any good. The controls
are just adequate, at best. There's some rough hit detection, which makes the platforming
more difficult than it should be. The game doesn't look terrible, but...since there are
only three environments, the levels all feel exactly the same. I mean, these licensed games
are usually pretty rushed, but...this actually feels like it was half of a game, unfinished,
rushed to the market for the holidays.
That's the only thing about this game that's incredible.
Very young players might get a bit of a kick out of it, but even they'll probably ask where
cartridge two is. Spoiler alert, kids—there is no cartridge two in Rise of the Underminer.