GENRE
	Action Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Papaya Studios
	PUBLISHER
	D3Publisher
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

Nintendojo was provided a copy of this game for review by a third party, though that does not affect our recommendation. For every review, Nintendojo uses a standard scoring criteria.

D3Publisher has a couple specialties, so far as Nintendo fans are concerned-- it published the excellent Puzzle Quest titles on DS, and it also publishes many licensed games based on children's cartoons and films, from Naruto to Astro Boy. Not all of these titles have hit the mark, but Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks is actually a solid title. Developer Papaya Studios has done a commendable job of creating a Ben 10 game that's not only going to be a nirvana experience for fans of the show, but the game's also not too shabby for action adventure fans who like a lot of transformations and special powers to toy with. Thanks to series protagonist Ben Tennyson's ability to use his watch-like Omnitrix to transform into ten different alien forms, and an intergalactic journey across seven planets that miraculously don't include a cliched volcano or antarctic environment, Vilgax Attacks has fundamental echoes of later Super Mario games: lots of environments and some sweet "suits."

There's even some crazy sci-fi twists pushing the whole story along. The game starts out with series villain Vilgax launching an attack on Earth with a Null Void projector, a device that allows alien and robotic criminals to exit the "extra-dimensional" Null Void prison and tear Earth apart. Vilgax has plans to take this tour of terror to as many places in the galaxy he can, and he's already conquered several other planets prior to Earth. Yet just when Vilgax seems assured victory over Earth, Professor Paradox pops up and warps Ben, cousin Gwen and obnoxious why-is-he-here "friend" Kevin Levin back in time, just before the attack. From this point, Ben kicks off a galaxy-traveling quest to find and destroy every possible power supply for Vilgax's Null Void projector. No power source; no projector; no galactic apocalypse.

The ultimate novelty of this original, time-tripping storyline is that it allows Ben to logically combat popular villains he defeated earlier in the television series, while also allowing cameos from other series characters, such as diminutive Azmuth, inexplicably voluptuous Grandma and nerdy, little Cooper. The best part? Rather than going to places Ben has been a hundred times on the show, Vilgax Attacks has Ben traveling to a few home worlds of his alien forms, none of which have ever been seen, let alone conceptualized, on the show or in any previous game.

Screenshot is from Xbox 360 version.

If all these characters, locations and alien forms seem like too much mind boggling fan-service, it is. People familiar with either Ben 10 cartoon series will appreciate this game most, but the storyline and gameplay are well-constructed enough to make this game entirely approachable and appreciable by someone completely new to the franchise. One item that may disappoint fans is that sidekicks Gwen and Kevin remain unplayable, merely acting as occasional plot devices and sounding boards for Ben during inter-level story sequences.

In the introductory earthbound level, Ben is able to transform into ten forms, which may sound obvious to non-fans, but this is actually the first Ben 10 game to allow that many transformations. Many of the alien forms are fan favorites, and it's not hard for folks new to the material to see why: the aliens have cool designs and cooler powers. Yet at the end of the first level, Ben loses the ability to transform into half his forms because the Omnitrix gets overloaded with all the transforming. So, Metroid-style, Ben regains the missing forms one by one after completing the next five levels of his eight-level quest.

Each level of the game is a lengthy trek, rife with platforming challenges, puzzles, and enemy battle areas. Combat areas are often easy to spot: whenever Ben comes to a roughly large, open area, it's sure to get locked down with force fields over the exits and then waves of enemies will quickly beam in. The fun of Vilgax Attacks is using all of Ben's forms to take on the baddies. Some players may develop an affinity for using the same alien form for every battle, but adventurous gamers will find battles more rewarding by trying different forms and their respective special attacks (which deplete an automatically-refilling special move meter) to see what's best with large, brute enemies and what's best for mobs of six to ten smaller enemies.

And even if a gamer gets habitual over how he battles baddies, frequent changing between forms is a necessity for the game's many puzzle and platform challenges. Spidermonkey web-shoots across certain gaps and climbs pipes and ledges, Humungosaur pries open doors and moves heavy crates, Big Chill spreads his moth-like wings to float over wide crevices and catch upwind drafts, Swampfire ignites explosive gases and burns plants with his fireballs, Brainstorm hacks computers and solves electronic brain teasers, Goop wall-jumps off slimy surfaces, Cannonbolt spins over trackball-like rotational switches and barrels through circular tunnels, Echo Echo leaves clones standing on switches to keep them activated, Chromastone uses laser beams to power elevators and switches, and, last but not least, Jet Ray has a speedier and further glide ability than Big Chill's. Many of these skills are also foundations for the aliens' special attacks, and each form has several such attacks that are unlocked over time (player's choice of which) after cashing in collected energy orbs dropped by defeated minions.

Screenshot is from Xbox 360 version.

Constant flipping between forms for combat and platforming makes Vilgax Attacks seem continuously fresh, especially when half the forms are temporarily locked up but heavily used for environmental challenges once regained. To further enliven things, when traveling to a new level/planet, gamers control Ben's sentient ship as it follows a straight track through space, shooting asteroids, satellites and hostile droid ships that get in the way. This mode, which always seems to be the same experience every time, has no depth-- the ship can't be leveled up or even truly steered, and no rewards occur for getting through the journey alive, which isn't too hard to begin with. Perhaps in an acknowledgment from the developer that this mode is a bit half-baked, it's skippable every time it occurs by pressing the minus button, which is a nice concession.

Back on the planets, there are a number of camera issues that sometimes get in the way of proceedings, especially when a higher-up view is desired to judge trickier platform jumps or line up sensitive laser beams on pinpoint targets. Unfortunately, the camera predominantly remains pretty low and close behind Ben and can merely be tightly recentered behind him with the minus button, unless a "Point of Interest" (aka, where to go or what to fight next) is around, for which holding down the plus button will shift the camera in that direction.

Also, the game's inconsistent in when it provides guidance. Frequently, the silhouette of an alien form needed to deal with an obstacle will appear next to said obstacle. In the terrifically designed third level, which is like a South American temple/Indiana Jones-inspired jungle world, there are a couple set-piece mechanical puzzles to get through. These puzzles have several triggers and switches to pull in a specific order, for which a few steps have the aforementioned silhouettes, but many others don't, requiring the gamer to fumble a bit until realizing that some steps actually need to be repeated a second or third time to move forward.

Further, D3Publisher's decision to include a mere 2-page manual with the game doesn't help if you happen to forget that jump-jump-block is the button combination to execute Spidermonkey's essential chasm-crossing web-shot move. Only unlocked attack combos are shown within the game's menus; the manual, not surprisingly, only covers the absolute minimum of controls in its two pages. So, when we reached an impassable area in level three that required the web-shot move's illogical button sequence, we had to replay a bulk of the game's opening level (via the game's stage select option) to relearn the button sequence. And, thanks to the game's frequent auto-saving, we overwrote all progress in level three and had to replay a bulk of that stage, including the previously noted, lengthy set-piece puzzles. Just so it's written down somewhere: Spidermonkey's web-shot move is Jump, Jump, Block (B, B, C). Don't forget it.

That ridiculous experience aside, the clever, lengthy and challenging boss battles capping each stage also add fun and personality to the proceedings. Some boss battles require a specific form to progress, but most allow the gamer to choose any favorite form, if not juggle between all of them to find the most effective attacks. The story introductions to these boss battles, as well as a few inter-level scenes, are handled by the in-game engine. While both in-game engine scenes and computer-rendered cut scenes for major story sequences feature the show's original voice actors (which includes Will Wheaton and Metal Gear Solid's colonel, pop culture geeks), the rendered cut scenes' animations are interestingly far more rigid in movement than the more expressive, fluid and better-timed in-game scenes.

Screenshot is from Xbox 360 version.

Regardless, Vilgax Attacks is a good looking Wii game. The character models in particular are well rendered and animated, and some of the special attacks, like Chromastone's prismatic and bloom-enhanced laser beams, are especially nice. Furthermore, the different planets are excellently designed, especially taking into account that they are original creations for the game. They each feature unique geography, a wealth of textures and strong, attractive color design. Whether swirling stars behind spookily-lit pathways in an alternate dimension, or a Star Wars-esque, rust-colored metallic city against a dark, stormy landscape, or gigantic pink crystal formations bursting from honey-colored stone on a mining planet, each level's an exciting place to see. Again, it's also remarkable the designers resisted the temptation to include an ice- or lava-based world-- that cliche seems more expected in a licensed title than anywhere else, yet what's available in Ben 10 is more intelligent, even if at one point we hankered for an admittedly cliche mine cart segment that never materialized.

Also adding to the professional voice acting and solid visual design is an excellent musical soundtrack with a host of original tunes, some of which were played by a real orchestra and all of which are remarkably epic and Hollywood action movie caliber-- again, a step above what would be expected in a licensed kids' title. Whether deep percussion and brass for the jungle planet, haunting cello and piano for the spooky Ghostfreak dimension, or soaring, high-noted electric guitars across the Null Void, it all works well. The only jarring element in the audio presentation are the voice clips and sound effects used during combat and platforming-- they're noticeably tinny and hollow, sounding like they were pulled from a VHS copy of the show, unlike the voice acting and effects used in the story sequences.

After beating the very tricky and difficult final boss, Vilgax Attacks wraps up with a satisfactory cut scene and unlocks a video interview with the game's voice actors, asking them their thoughts about the game and their favorite forms. Other than replaying previous stages to find hidden "plumber badges" (which, as collected, upgrade the gamer's max health and super attack meters), there's not a lot of incentive to keep playing this single player-only game. It's definitely a varied, fun romp for the six to eight hours it will take most folks to complete, though.

Summarily, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks is an example of how to create a licensed game for kids the right way. It provides an original story with polished visuals and audio, brings in lots of favorite heroes and villains, and has much variety in both gameplay and level design. All of this adds up to keep players-- Ben 10 fans or not-- engaged and interested. Certainly, more could always be wished for because the property's so much fun-- perhaps a "room of danger" to allow alien forms fight an ever-stronger string of baddies, or an arena to allow two players duke it out with favorite alien forms would have been neat. And, concerning what is in the game, a better camera, more consistent in-game hints, Gwen or Kevin being playable, and less cheap attacks by the last boss and Ghostfreak would have been nice. Yet that shouldn't detract from the main point: Vilgax Attacks' core experience and single-player focus is solidly executed and a lot of fun.

7.7/10