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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Aquaman Nintendo Game - 2003

sgI'll admit this right up front: I've never played this game, not once.

First--it features BLL Aquaman. Second--I don't have any sort of game system. Two strikes, you're out! (I don't follow sports, obviously)

While I had an Atari, like all kids of my generation, I luckily never "graduated" onto the more high-end game systems, unlike a lot of my generation. I'm not sure why I didn't--I loved my Atari and playing arcade games. But in the end I'm glad I didn't, because I think I probably would've become obsessive about it, playing for hours and hours on end, my skin never seeing any light except the dull glow of the TV screen.

Being a comic book fan was bad enough for my social life; throw video games into the mix and I probably would've ended up living on Tatooine with a frozen Han Solo as a wall ornament.

So, I have the game, but never played it. If anyone out there has, how is it?

10 comments:

Siskoid said...

Someone got me a used XBox version on my last birthday and I played it a few times. The disk is old so it tends to jam, that's why I haven't obsessively finished it.

Basically, after the comic book panels non-animated intro, it's a 3D underwater environment with pirate Aquaman as the hero. You defend Atlantis from raiders using punching combinations (never been good at that) but also your hook (at one point, you take out bombs long range with the extended hook line) and your mastery over your fishy friends (a call for help will get a shark, hammerhead or dolphin to smash into the bad guy out of nowhere - it's cool).

Every four stages or so, you're aboard a mini-warsub and the game becomes a spaceship shoot-em-up. About as far as I got, really.

I'd call it average on all levels, but I should get back to it and see.

Anonymous said...

The box art, while well done, really tells the potential buyer NOTHING about the game, or Aquaman. It would be great on a 90s era Aquaman cover with the tagline "Hail the King" or something, but on a video game cover it says "There's a muscled guy in a silver shirt with a pitchfork". Plus it probably confuses the general public, who mostly know Aquaman from Super Friends, and maybe JL/JLU.

A shot of BLL Aquaman swimming would have been much better. Even if the reaction was "Why does Aquman have a beard and long hair", it would have provoked some connection to the Aquman people know.

I'm not surprised this game didn't seem to make a big...ahem...splash.

Chris

Plaidstallions said...

Never a video game guy either, I think I rented a JLA game for my Nintendo back in the ninties that had the Hook Aquaman.

Didn't a recent JLA game have Arthur back in the Orange/Green?

Tegan said...

I bought this one too, despite not having a game system to play it on. I'm told my name shows up in the credits.

Also, you can "unlock" classic Aquaman on this game. The makers of the game sent me screenshots when they were still creating it.

Scurvy said...

I have it and I have played most of the way through it. It's your typical brawler type of fight every few levels, and then flying around in a Atlantean ship. I found it too be not too difficult overall as far as what you have to do to advance. Some of the specialty moves require more thought than I like to put into a game (hitting certain commands in a certain order... some of them are just too long), but I also dug the fact that you can call dolphins (I think 4 times per level) to take out enemies. One of the reasons I stopped where I did though was on one level there were like 7 dudes surrounding me and I got frustrated at getting killed repeatedly. The real Aquaman would not have had this problem. :) The mini-sub levels were pretty fun to play too. Overall, I would say this game is really for fans alone, but not one that the fans have been waiting for. Other gamers I talked to hadn't even heard of it mostly.

Dixon said...

Indeed, as Brian suggests, Aquaman is also an unlockable character on the more recent Justice League Heroes game. He appears in his most recent (sixth series) green and orange outfit, the hook replaced with the magic water hand. It's an excellent game, and during levels set in Gorilla City I never get tired of teaming Arthur with the Flash.

Louie Joyce said...

I've always wanted to play this game, but being a playstation owner, never have. Though i'm not that bummed as i've generally always heard it's crap. Still, i'd like to one day.

Justice League Heroes is an alright game. Pretty fun playing as Aquaman in that.

Anonymous said...

Well, I've actually been wanting to get it for a long time, just haven't found it for rent, and haven't really wanted to buy something without ever having played it before. I finally decided to pick it up from Amazon.

I was thoroughly disappointed with JLA Heroes, it was a mediocre game, especially compared to MUA. Aquaman was pretty fun to play, though. Freedom Force blows it away like crazy.

Anonymous said...

I was DC's in-house QC editor on this game while I was working in Creative Services. I could do an hour and a half on the headaches of this one. Bad concept, bad script, bad chaarcter designs, lame animation...DC's online editor, Mike Siglain, and I used to groan mightily while reviewing their stuff--as lame as it wound up being (and I moved to Licensed Publishing before the project was finished), you wouldn't believe the stuff we made them take out/fix.

Of course, videogames were always a pain in the tuchus to QC. So many elements, often a language barrier, so many cooks in the kitchen (writers, producers, developers, programmers, the licensee, etc.) that it turns into turf wars protecting individual ideas. I can't tell you the number of times I had to say to developers that either they change whatever it is they INSIST has to stay (but which is, if not wildly out of character or continuity, massively stupid) or I don't approve that stage of the game. It ain't easy being the guardian of the canon.

Paul Kupperberg

Anonymous said...

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