I don’t know why, but Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a game premise I have wanted to have and play for a long time. I mean, c’mon, super heroes battling amongst each other in large arena battles for ultimate supremacy just sounds awesome. However, as much as I wanted to enjoy playing this game, I knew in my heart after the first match that something just didn’t work. Riddled with balance issues and other gameplay flaws, this great concept isn’t successful as a whole.

The story is reminiscent of every comic book storyline ever written – an evil scientist, Niles Van Roekel, unleashes an alien invasion upon the world to enslave mankind. In the meantime, Van Roekel has created several creatures in his quest for the ultimate fighters to serve under him. The creatures, known as the Imperfects, are formidable opponents to even the greatest earth superheroes and it's up to Marvel’s own warriors to take the Imperfects (which include interestingly named characters including Fault Zone, Solara, Brigade, Paragon, Johnny Ohm, and The Wink) and Van Roekel down. The developers have done a good job in picking the most popular of the heroes (and villains) in Marvel’s collection to appear in game, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Thing, and Magneto (and a few less popular character…cough * Dare Devil * cough).

Each one offers up their own unique abilities, but also possess some setbacks that might be abused when fighting against other “mutants.” This is where I had the biggest problem with the game: balance issues in one-on-one matches. Some characters are much faster than others, and can attack fiercely one second then dodge out of the way the very next second. Usually, this doesn’t have too much affect on gameplay because of the small scale of arenas. But with the over-sized levels that are riddled with exploding obstacles, slower characters have little chance. Anytime I played against a friend, we both waited to see who would pick which fighter so as to pick the appropriate opponent that would whoop its butt. Obviously, these decisions (much like a game of rock-paper-scissors) usually took several minutes because neither one of us wanted the weaker character. Eventually, one of us would cave and allow the other person to dominate in the battle. That should never happen!

At the beginning of the game, you are given almost one-quarter of the characters that can be played. All other superheroes and villains must be unlocked through completion of specific single-player campaigns (sorry kiddies, no cheat codes are currently available). This wouldn’t be too bad if the single-player mode wasn’t completely laborious. In it, you have to fight through large numbers of identical alien soldiers systematically attacking the same patterns and intervals. Battles between you and the alien soldiers sometimes feel endless (the AI is problematic, abusing enemy powers one second and then throwing blind punches and kicks the next second) and rely primarily on killing all of the within a given time limit before progressing to the boss fight. Boss fights, although dramatically improved compared to fighters with their minions, still feel sequenced and a pattern starts to develop as you fight them. Even though this gameplay flaw is in your favor, it gets kind of boring.

To mix the gameplay up, the developers give you several character paths to take in the single-player menu. So, if you get tired of romping around as the Thing, you can choose to give Venom a try. Completing these paths will eventually unlock the characters for multiplayer, where the bulk of the game will be spent. Ignoring the obvious balance and environmental issues, the characters fight pretty solidly. Each have similar basic combat moves like punch and block that vary in effect depending on the strength of your character. But what really separates the heroes are the superpowers they have that can be initiated with the shoulder buttons, like movement and combo powers (Spider-Man slings web, Wolverine’s claws unleash, and Storm blows opponents off the ground). Your power meter is depleted when using powers but can be regained fairly quickly with charging your character up. The power meter also fuels the rage meter that, when started, gives your character an infinite supply power for a period of time. I was also hoping for a little more diversity in superpowers than just one main attack, but c'est la vie.

Besides multiplayer, Xbox Live comes in very handy, pitting you against players similar to your skill level (based on a series of success statistics for leader board tracking you can view). The fighting is seamless, providing a new gameplay medium without much lag. However, the balance issues do get exploited by online users and you must choose your characters accordingly as previously discussed.

Graphically, the developers spent most of their time on the character animation which looks outstanding on the Xbox. Watching the fluidity of the battles is quiet exciting. However, the same can not be said about the environments and effects. Arenas look bland in comparison to the character modes and explosions of objects look too dramatized to be realistic. The sound is really nothing special. The standard soundtrack mixed with predictable sound effects like punches and explosions are only pulled down by the silliness of the voice acting before and after fights. If I never hear Spider-Man’s dialog “you’ve just got a web-slinging ass-kicking” again, it’ll be too soon.

I would like to see a sequel made with major adjustments done to the balance and other gameplay issue. These setbacks are the anchor that keeps this game from being fun. Get rid of the single player, we don’t need it. Just throw in more Marvel characters and more effective arenas and you might just have something here. As it is right now, the game fails to deliver a solid (never mind fun) experience to justify a purchase.

Gameplay: 5.5
There are just too many gameplay negatives that outweigh the positives in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

Graphics: 8.5
The character models and animation look awesome and make up for the blandness of the environmental backgrounds and effects.

Sound: 7.0
Average sound effects and songs tied with third-rate voice acting and writing

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.5
Superheroes versus superheroes? The kid in me is giddy with excitement (and I don’t get to use the word ‘giddy’ too often).

Multiplayer: 7.0
Xbox Live does a good job in fluidly bringing the one-on-one gameplay to the online world but also brings all of the shortcomings of the title as well.

Overall: 6.0
The lineup of Marvel characters is pretty impressive but does nothing to save Rise of the Imperfects from the problematic gameplay issues.