Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer

Incredible? Hardly.

Tags: Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews

Posted by Jake McNeill on Dec 14th, 2005

Title Players
Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer (title page) 1 - 2
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Adventure No


The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is a game that’s essentially based on the last thirty seconds of Pixar’s hit film from last year. Thrown in as a funny in-joke to Pixar fans, the end of that film quickly introduced a whimsical villain named The Underminer… largely so they could squeeze in the voice of John Ratzenberger at the last possible moment (playing off of the fact that Ratzenberger has had cameo roles in every Pixar movie). It was a cute way to end the movie, and a funny joke for those who understood what was going on. Now, THQ and developer Heavy Iron Studios have taken that joke and expanded it into a full videogame. Unfortunately, the end result feels like a decent joke that was stretched out until it just stopped being funny.

If nothing else, they got the game’s visuals right. The game looks like the film, with characters animating like in the movie, all the character models and environments looking like the movie, and the game even respects little details like the ice trail Frozone’s beam leaves as he shoots it around. In addition, the environments are big and full of activity, with little things even happening off in the distance, like the Underminer’s drills popping up in the earth and tearing apart buildings far up ahead. If nothing else, the game does justice to the look of the movie.


Same goes for the sound. Ratzenberger reprises his role in this film very prominently, making up for his lack of screen time in the film, and then some. Ratzenberger’s voice-overs even extend to the game’s menus, where he taunts and even comments on the selections the player makes. It’s a cute little detail that makes the presentation that much stronger. The rest of the voice cast is rounded out by voice-alikes that do a good job of imitating the big-name actors from the film, and everything is accompanied by music very much in the vein of the film by the film’s composer, Michael Giacchino.

The game itself is pretty much a straightforward beat-‘em-up with light platforming elements. Players switch back and forth between Mr. Incredible and Frozone as they battle their way through The Underminer’s minions to put an end to the threat of blah blah blah. The story isn’t exactly prominent here, and even if it was, it wouldn’t be a high note. Unfortunately, neither is the gameplay.


Mr. Incredible and Frozone only have a limited selection of moves, and they wear thin quickly. Both characters can punch, dash, jump, and screen-clearing special move. Mr. Incredible can throw objects and frozen enemies, and do a ground smash, while Frozone can freeze enemies and jump on his snowboard in midair. Toss in the occasional simple puzzle (which usually involves Frozone freezing something, Mr. Incredible throwing or smashing something, or a combination of the two), and that’s about it. Yeah, combat will get very boring very quickly. And while you can upgrade the two heroes’ moves as the game progresses, you don’t really get new moves. Jeez, there were beat-‘em-ups on the NES with more variety than this (I can think of at least three right off the top of my head).

Even more head-scratching is the fact that Mr. Incredible and Frozone are the game’s only playable characters. This is absolutely mind-boggling, given that one of the film’s strengths is the cool variety of superheroes with interesting and varied powers, and with the game’s noticeable lack of variety in the moveset, being able to play as any of the stars of the film isn’t only plain dumb common sense, it’s something that could have at least helped to hold back the forces of boredom.


The game does throw in the option for two players to play co-op, but this just means that either player is only using half of the team, giving both a fraction of an already limited repertoire of moves. And yet, many of the game’s challenges seem to almost call for Mr. Incredible and Frozone to be working cooperatively, something the game’s AI just can’t do particularly well, even when you command the AI-controlled teammate using simple commands via the D-Pad.

The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer looks and sounds just fine, and the beat-‘em-up genre seems like a fine fit for superhero action. However, beat-‘em-ups tend to get repetitive quickly unless they’re filled with a good amount of variety, and unfortunately, a small selection of moves and a cast of only two playable characters makes this a game that will quickly lose its appeal for all but the most dedicated fans of the movie.

What Works Score
+ The graphics are nice
+ The sound (and Ratzenberger's voice talents in particular) are well done
+ The overall presentation is fantastic 		6.0
What Doesn't
- Just not enough moves
- And only two characters? What gives!?
- Game gets repetitive and boring very quickly.
Under the Shrink-wrap
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer gets the presentation right, but the gameplay gets old about thirty seconds in (coincidentally, about the same amount of time The Underminer was in the movie).
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