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By Keith B (21st Jul 2007)

Justice League Heroes is a rather bland game that was developed by Snow-blind Studios. It is a compilation of favorite DC Comics crime fighters, based on the Justice League of America.

Most of the characters are the same ones I remember from my childhood, but a couple of them are unfamiliar or a character that can be unlocked. As for me, anything new that joins a group of heroes that you grew up with makes me a little skeptical of their abilities and their likeableness. Martian Manhunter was one unfamiliar character, also known as J’ann J’annz. He can turn into an alien (big whoop), but he is vulnerable to fire and psychic attacks. Zatanna uses magic to cast powerful spells and casts her spells by describing their effects in backward speech. She can knock enemies in the air with a burst of magic power. The Huntress or Helena Rose Bertinelli is a character that must be unlocked to use. She uses martial arts, a grappling hook, and a crossbow to turn any fight to her favor.

Those unfamiliar characters are joined by some of the old favorites like Green Lantern or John Stewart, whose glowing power ring is capable of forming pure energy attacks; Wonder Woman or Diana along with Batman or Bruce Wayne, who, with no real superhuman powers, excels in martial arts. Superman is next, although his powers need no explanation. Almost everyone has had some exposure to the Superman phenomenon.

The Flash or Wally West’s superpowers are self-explanatory. The rest are Aquaman, Hawk Girl, and Green Arrow, who are kinda boring, except Aquaman. He uses water, obviously, as his weapon (I think that’s kinda cool).

As far as game play, you can play two heroes at once, although you can only control one at a time. The other hero will play with you and usually does a pretty good job. They do, however, tend to get stuck. You may choose to play as the other character as well by simply pressing the down key on the directional pad. You start out playing as Batman and Superman who are defending Metropolis while a band of giant Robots wreak havoc on the town and its citizens. You will learn that their nemesis Brainiac seems to be behind all of the chaos. As your journey continues you will discover that Brainiac and Darkside have teamed up to gain the ultimate powers to rule the universe. Your mission is to stop Brainiac and Darkside and restore order to the universe. You can use your character’s superpowers to help aid you, but their abilities are limited to the amount of power you have. You can gain stats and use them to add to your hero’s skills.

I wasn’t very impressed with the game, overall. The difficulty of the game is rather non-existent, after you get the hang of it. It is a bird’s-eye view with a dungeon style graphics. Although all of the superheroes have their own special skills and super powers, they all have a normal attack and a power attack. Double tapping the jump button will enable some players, namely Superman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Zatanna to fly. The other players will either hover or do some kind of aerial attack with this button combination. Defeating your foes becomes a little monotonous. You are either fighting some robot, gorilla, or this ugly bee-looking thing. A lot of detailing went into the making of each superhero�"maybe too much. At the opening screen, the superheroes are so ugly that I thought they were the villains. They all look very pale and sickly. The same amount of detail also went into the making of each villain as well. I was very impressed with how evil Brainiac and Darkside looked. The voices of the Heroes are almost dead on the original voices, but some of the things they repeat are a little annoying.

I was also annoyed that Superman, the man of steel, could be injured so easily. Seriously, couldn’t they have made him a little more heroic? Oh well, I guess they had to make each superhero equal in skills. Of course they couldn’t just let Superman be the best superhero, even though he is. Also, some of the superpowers seem difficult to control like Superman’s laser eyes and Green Lantern’s hammer. Some foes move quite fast, and it is difficult to follow them with these powers.

One interesting trick these superheroes can pull is that they can pick up random objects like cars, hot dog carts, and other miscellaneous objects and use them as a bat or hurl it at their opponent. Even though defeating the drones gets repetitive, once you reach the bosses’ lair it becomes a whole new game. Hand to hand combat is indifferent between heroes, but each superhero starts out with three of their five special powers that makes each superhero different from the next. Not only does it add finesse to the game, it is also necessary to use on the hard-to-beat bosses.

Justice League Heroes has a two player mode which is more fun than single player mode. It is the same game as single player, but instead of the computer playing the other hero, the second player takes control. It’s always more fun to play with a friend or loved one than by yourself.

Overall, I would recommend this game to the younger generations because, frankly, there is not enough challenge to keep the interest of an adult, at least if they are semi-literate and awake (maybe it would be fun for an adult alcoholic when they run out of alcohol at 4:00 am).