Ben 10 (PS4)

 

The only thing better than watching your Saturday morning cartoons, is getting to be a part of them. Ben 10 brings the sci-fi animated adventures of Ben Tennyson and his family right into your hands. Ben, along with his sister Gwen and their grandfather Max, are in the beginning throes of a cross country road trip when it is thrown completely out of whack. You'll have to ump into Ben's shoes, and his alien forms, as you save the world from Zombozo, Queen Bee, and The Weatherheads.

Ben 10 can best be descirbed as a 2.5D side-scrolling beat-em-up game. You'll almost always be moving from left to right on the screen, but there are some areas where you'll get a more behind-the-back perspective. The great part is that you get full roam over the entire depth of the screen, instead of having to "pick a lane" like in some side scrollers that offer depth.

You play as Ben himself, armed with his watch, called the Omnitrix. This watch can hold the DNA of up to thirteen aliens and it allows the wearer (in this case Ben) to transform into one of those aliens for a limited time. While you can do the platforming and combat as Ben himself, using the aliens is ideal through the game as they can perform much stronger attacks, have access to special Ultimate attacks, and their special skills are sometimes needed to solve some of the puzzles contained in the game.

No matter who you're playing as though, the controls of this game feel fantastic. Combat is directional, so you'll punch or shoot in whichever direction you're facing, and can be timed to wipe around in a circle if your enemies are starting to surround you. Got too many on the screen? Just build up your attacks enough to gain access to that alien's Ultimate ability. If you don't wipe out everything on the screen, you'll do a great amount of damage and it'll be easy pickings for whatever is leftover. Alien took some damage in the fight? The more hits you land in combat, your health will automatically refill.

The radial wheel that gives you access to the alien forms throughout the game. You start with three, and the remaining seven are unlocked progressively through the story.

If you're not a big fan of the cartoon, a lot of this game might be lost on you. The show was recently (as in within the last year) rebooted, and this game is based off of that reboot. The characters and villains are introduced with a little bit of background/explanation, but if you don't know much about them it can be hard to grasp on to a lot of it.

Honestly though, even if you're not a fan of the show or know nothing about it, Ben 10 is a really great game and a lot of fun for all ages. There is nothing gorey, no bad language, and everything is presented in a heavy cartoon manner so there won't be anything scary or too intense. The combat is really smooth and fun, the platforming and puzzles are extremely well done, and it's very easy to fall into this game and not want to stop playing. I personally haven't watched much of the cartoon (maybe half a dozen episodes) and I really enjoyed playing this game.

Rating 8/10
Developed By : Torus Games
Published By : Outright Games
Also Available on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC