The Incredibles is a beloved Pixar movie that has seen a few video game adaptations. You may recall me feeling very indifferent to Heavy Iron Studios’s attempt at bringing The Incredibles story in the form of a video game as there were many problems with its pacing, its clunky gameplay, and its frustrating difficulty spikes. It was disappointing, but it was far from the worst game I've ever played. Now it seems Heavy Iron has decided to give another go with a new game titled “The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer” which provides a story that is supposed to take after the cliffhanger ending of the original movie. Surprisingly though, even though it isn’t without its flaws, this game is honestly what we should have been getting from the first Incredibles game.
Taking place supposedly after the events of the first Incredibles movie, a new villain known as The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) has arisen from the ground and has declared war. It’s now up to Mr. Incredible and his buddy Frozone to infiltrate the Underminers lair while coming across deadly enemies and interesting locations. Can our heroes stop the Underminer before he takes over the city of Metroville, Oh what do you think?
If you're expecting the story of this game to have the same amount of excitement and deep thought-provoking themes as the original 2004 movie, then you might be a little disappointed because the story in this game is much more simple and straightforward but that is not entirely a bad thing. The game provides a fun story that is a unique take on what could happen after the events of the first Incredibles movie and I like the way they portray the characters especially when it comes to the Underminer himself played by the almighty John Ratzenberger. The story is not the most important factor as to why this game is better than the previous entry, but it does its job to the best it can do to please fans and newcomers alike.
The gameplay is much better handled than the original Incredibles video game there are little to no difficulty spikes and the gameplay feels a lot smoother. I’ve complained in the last Incredibles game that the difficulty felt unfair and too challenging in areas that don’t feel right progression-wise. This game is the exact opposite as the game provides easier-to-understand mechanics and the difficulty only gets more challenging as you progress through the game’s levels making things fair and enjoyable without too much frustration. Mr. Incredible and Frozone are playable characters that you can play by yourself or with a friend. Each of them has its unique abilities that are needed to take out enemies or get past certain areas of a level. Their powers can be upgraded which can help you get to pass some tough segments and make your road to defeating the Underminer all the more easier. The only thing I wish could be different is that we could also play as the other Incredibles members such as Elastigirl and Dash.It could have made things more interesting as their powers and abilities would have been interesting to try out in this game. Plus, it would allow more than two people to enjoy playing this game.
The Graphics have noticeably improved since last time as the characters look less awkward and the locations feel a little more dynamic. True, a lot of the time we do mostly spend it underground, but the locations at least keep things more interesting and fun unlike how we spent so much time on Nomanisan interiors. The character designs, on the other hand, are a tad bit more expressive and don’t feel as uncanny as last time which is a noticeable improvement. Even the enemies have much more variety to them as each of them is designed to attack in different ways to stop Mr. Incredible and Frozone compared to last time where they just copy and pasted enemies making them visually boring. It’s impressive that they managed to get the almighty composer Michael Giacchino to score the music for this game along with Chris Tilton. The music is very good even if it’s not up there with the original movie, but I still give Heavy Iron kudos that they wanted the music to be as much like The Incredibles movie as possible.
Compared to Heavy Iron Studios’ last attempt at making an Incredibles video game, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is a much more superior experience that while not perfect, is closer to what The Incredibles deserves in terms of a video game. The story is fun and enjoyable, the gameplay is fair and good to control and the graphics and music capture the feeling that you're playing a game based in the Incredibles world. This is what we should have gotten from Heavy Iron Studios from the original 2004 Incredibles video game, but I am happy to say that I’m glad the studio managed to get the Incredibles right this time and managed to bring us a good enough game worthy of The Incredibles name.
(Final Grade: B)