PS3 Review - Megamind: Ultimate Showdown

Dreamworks has yet again released a stellar family film that quickly rose up the box office charts. Inevitably a game was released and we’re left pondering could this be the game that finally makes movie tie end games good, read below to see if THQ has finally broken the trend.

The story in Megamind: Ultimate Showdown happens after the events of the movie. Megamind is the hero and guardian of Metro City. During an interview the city is attacked by a crime wave which can only be the works of the Doom Syndicate, a group of super villains bent on destruction, and now Megamind must again prove that he is the hero Metro City needs. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of the story, there isn’t a lot of plot lines or twists, just a basic hero must stop a group of super villains, but then again this is a movie based game so we shouldn’t expect much more.

The gameplay is standard for these types of movie games. You have your basic platformer loaded with collectibles and plenty of goons to beat up. The platforming is done rather well with a little variety, but not very much. Sure the first time you need to figure out how to get from rooftop to rooftop is fun, but after doing it for the tenth time on a level the magic is gone. Adding even more to this is the fact that there is no guess work to it. There is always a big arrow pointing to what you need to do, not to mention Megamind’s sidekick, Minion, will tell you over and over until you do it. This really makes the platforming quite simple, and a shame they couldn’t of spruced it up or made it less simplistic.

The combat is also rather basic, Megamind has a few weapons along with his basic blaster. Throughout the levels you will come across new weapons like the blow glove, Tesla glove and dehydration gun. Unfortunately, you can’t flip through your guns when you want to, you have to wait to come across a particular weapon to use it, which is always conveniently placed near a switch that you will need that weapon for. It would have been nice to be able to hold on to all of the weapons and then be able to decide which one to use when you got to that switch, but alas that is not the case.

Throughout each level you will also be looking for B.I.N.K.E.Y. which are blue orbs. You’ll find these just laying around or from killing enemies and breaking objects. You then can use this to upgrade your weapons, like there power or range. This actually at first sounds like it will add some more depth, but it seems to have little to no effect on your weapons.

You’ll also be encountering countless goons throughout the levels. These goons, like the rest of the game, are quite simple and lacking in any depth, with only a total of six different enemies. This wouldn’t be an issue but there are only two types of goons per level and they use the same character models. You have the skinny guy (Construction worker, guitar player and bus boy) who throws tiny objects at you and will do some melee and a big guy (cement mixer, sax player and lunch lady) who will shoot you with a bigger blast. You can tell that they took the same model and simply put a different skin on it which is very sad.

You will also have to fight four bosses which, unlike the rest of the game, actually have some character. You only will encounter each one once and the fights are pretty simplistic. You just need to look for a pattern and then its smooth sailing from there. It would have been nice to have more interaction with them throughout the levels, but at least they were more enjoyable then the rest of the game.

The graphics look decent for a movie game with some of the set pieces being quite interesting, but the levels are so linear you won’t get to enjoy them. The voice acting is plain bad, none of the movie voice actors are present so it is quite detracting playing as Megamind and not hearing Will Ferrel. Plus you will hear the same lines over and over sometimes two or three times within a minute.

As you play through the story you will unlock five mini games. These will have you doing pod races, climbing up the side of a building and many more. Surprisingly this adds a good bit of enjoyment, not to mention it adds a bunch new gameplay features. While playing through these I realized that adding this to the single player would have made a more enjoyable experience, and yet another missed opportunity.

Finally there is some multiplayer, but it is barely worth mentioning. The second player plays as one of Megamind’s robot’s, they can collect B.I.N.K.E.Y. and shoot enemies, but that is it. It is so tacked on that the enemies won’t even attack the second player, so really your just there to collect more points. This could have been helped with the mini game by providing some sort of competition, but again the second player is just floating near by not really doing anything which seems like such a bad addition.

Overall, Megamind: Ultimate Showdown is a decent platformer, but lacks in many other aspects from a lackluster story to repetitive gameplay. The one saving grace would be for you trophy addicts out there since you can platinum this in roughly six hours. That being said this should be no more then a rent at best.