Insert Coin Review: Justice League Heroes (PS2)

I'm going to try something different today. Given my actual life is pretty devoid of things worth writing about (unless you're interested in the wonders of the world of airfield guidancesigns, in that case read my book). I've been finding myself with time to actually play and complete video games, read books, watch movies, things like that. So every once in a while I'll write up a short review and stick it here (for all two of you that read this blog :0 ). So here goes.

Justice League Heroes, upon seeing the first commercial for this game I was immediately intrigued. What I saw of gameplay footage looked super neato, an X-Men legends style smash em up with the JUSTICE LEAGUE. I've always been more of a marvel fan my whole life, but I along with millions of others have been waiting for a Justice League centered game that we can be proud of (Justice League: Task Force doesn't exist, I swear, it was ret-conned out of real life.) I have to admit, for what it is, this game delivers.

First off, what I really like about this game: Presentation, this game looks GREAT. The in game graphics are beautifully fluid and colorful, albeit small and mostly seen from an almost top-down prospective, the heroes, civilians and villains all look great. The movie sequences look a lot more cartoony than they should in my opinion, but they are still looking good and really add to the whole experience (as opposed to movie sequences in other games that just seem to waste time, *ahem* Ultimate Alliance *cough*). Also, the voice acting is great...for the most part. The dialog can be incredibly cheesy at times and the unlockable characters seemed to be given lines as an after-thought (Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner have the same voice actor and I'm pretty sure they share the same lines.) Also, the acting for Superman is pretty much less than super. It doesn't really give him any sort of presence or intensity. This is supposed to be Superman, I know he's part of the team and they probably didn't really want to overpower anyone too much in any way, but he sounds like a super queer in this game.

Now, the major gripes: Only two characters at once, while still fun to play with only two people, I think a 4 player smashfest would have been awesome. Also, it was awfully short, I beat the game in about 5 or 6 hours, and the characters are pretty unbalanced (if you go into battle with Green Arrow and Huntress, you're screwed.)

Overall it was an enjoyable experience. It seems Snowblind Studios set out to make a game for DC fans that could stand up to the likes of Ultimate Alliance and the two X-Men legends games. The gameplay is very similar between all of them in that you gain experience points throughout the game to upgrade your skills, similar combat and superpower systems, etc. The similarities are obviously intentional, but I don't mind. I recommend it to any major fans of DC comics or the other super-hero based RPGish beat em ups.

Overall Grade: 3.5/5