Man the heroes of the DC Universe, and get the Justice League out on the streets with Justice League Heroes. And, as always, X-Play has the review for your PS2.
The Pros
- Excellent graphics
- Good use of DC characters
- Fun gameplay and level design
- Well-done voice acting
- Great two-player cooperative action
The Cons
- Takes some liberties with character powers (Zatanna?)
- Mediocre teammate AI
- Not enough differences between characters
DC Comics hasn’t had much luck in the virtual playground. While there are plenty of high hopes for EA Games’ take on Superman, past games involving Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and other stables of the comic world have been mediocre at best, and legendarily awful at worst. So, in comparison to the rest of line-up, Justice League Heroes is easily the best game to ever use the license. Thankfully, it’s also a good game in general.
Leaguers Unite!
Justice League Heroes bears striking similarities to the Marvel Ultimate Alliance. In many ways, they are almost the same game, just with Marvel and DC skins. Justice League Heroes is a superhero themed remake similar to the Marvel Ultimate Alliance remake of the X-Men Legends game. The gameplay and general design of Justice League Heroes is almost identical to Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance—two heroes run through monster-infested levels gaining items and power, while performing goals that inevitably involve smashing things.
Justice League Heroes covers familiar ground, but does so remarkably well. A conspiracy for world domination is brewing, and plenty of super-villains are exacting plans for revenge simultaneously. From their Moon based headquarters, the league is struggling to keep up with the demand for super heroics in this time of crisis, thus giving plenty of excuse for only ever allowing a team of two heroes at any one time.
You’ll cross paths with Brainiac, the Queen Bee, the Key, the White Martians, Doomsday, Gorilla Grodd, Killer Frost, and a seemingly endless army of drones, robots, and other brawling fodder. The Justice League in Justice League Heroes consists of Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and, oddly, Zatanna (the mistress of magic). While fans will almost certainly have plenty of fuel to argue over Zatanna’s inclusion, the Justice League is a good team, and the voice acting is excellent.
Team Titans!
Before you can actually select your team, you will be well into the game. However, the game seems a little too preoccupied with making the characters balanced. While the ability to fly at any time is great, none of the characters actually seems more powerful than the rest. Batman can destroy a robotic menace with his fists as readily as Superman, when in the comics, Superman or the Martian Manhunter should be able to put almost all these opponents down with a single punch. In addition, everyone moves at the same speed, and there is no true ability to speed up or run.
Each character has several super powers that can be accessed with a combination of a shoulder and face button (just like in Marvel Ultimate Alliance…) but the only difference between distance attacks like Superman’s heat vision, or the Martian Manhunter’s psychic blast is the visual effect. The Flash’s special powers are bursts of speed—otherwise he moves at the same pace as the rest of the group, which just seems wrong.
Superfriends
When playing alone, the AI of your teammate is incredibly uneven. Their pathfinding is flawed, and they seem to mostly concentrate on attacking your targets. Despite these flaws, the single player game is still fun. A solid adventure is provided, with a decent storyline and great presentation. The graphics are similar to Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, which was a great looking PS2 game, and the characters and locations are very detailed.
Add a friend, however, and Justice League Heroes is a lot more entertaining. A second player can join at any time, and even can swap characters at will. While all the games of this type are really just dressed-up versions of Gauntlet, Heroes will undoubtedly hold a lot of appeal for comic book fans hungry for a DC-based game that doesn’t disappoint.
A Heroic Attempt
Justice League Heroes is not perfect, and it’s definitely not innovative, but it makes a solid action adventure out of the familiar gameplay and well-loved characters. While it’s not as expansive and polished as Marvel Ultimate Alliance, for anyone who wanted to team up Batman and Superman, or take flight with the Manhunter and Green Lantern, this is the only game in town.
Article by: Jason D'Aprile
Video produced by: Tim Jennings
Comments
Asano-Aviarus
Umm...I think someone messed up the title.
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