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.