Bigt Chill, Swampfire or Spider-Monkey? (Ben 10 - Alien Force (Wii))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Ben 10 - Alien Force (Wii)
Date:	19/10/09 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly playable, good progression and compilation

Disadvantages: Occasional movement control, frustration

Normally, we try to restrict presents to special occasions, but as our son had been so good and had done marvellously at school recently, and we had a bunch of games to trade in and a gift card for Game, we decided to preempt Christmas, and get this Wii Ben 10 Alien Force game ahead of time.

Our son, Will, is 5, and absolutely mad on Ben 10. We restrict when he watches TV and plays on the Wii, and he is happy enough with this agreement. When he does get a chance to play on teh Wii, it's pretty much always this game he goes for. Essentially, it is a basic platform game with not really anything special about it. You control a character, who must negotiate an area, with enemies, and defeat an end of level boss. Along the way, your character can acquire extra things to help defeat more powerful bosses.

It's a standard format, and a winning one, and it's well adapted to Ben 10 Alien Force. You play each level with the character given to you, be it Ben, Kevin or Gwen, each with their different powers. Ben can naturally change into the various aliens that his alien watch, the Omnitrix, contains. What I like about this element of the game is that the main focus is on Ben, but he only starts off with one alien. You haver to progress through levels and defeat a certain number of enemies before learning a new move, or acquiring another alien.

As the game progresses and your repertoire of aliens and moves increases, so too does the level of difficulty. The first few levels are quite easy, but as the game progresses, we found ourselves more and more having to repeat levels to pass them. This can result in frustration, so it's well worth being on hand to help if it's needed, or to calm down a situation if they can't quite manage it.

Will has mastered the combo of the nunchuk and the controller, having played a few of the Lego games before, so controlling the characters wasn't a problem for him. There are some elements that get a little violent, but nothing more than the cartoon would. If you are unsure as to whether it would be suitable or not for your kid, all I can suggest is being around so you can pause or stop the game.

I recommend this game quite highly. It is one that you can come back to time and time again, enjoying it immensely whether you're an adult or a kid. It has high playability, the graphics are quite good, and the character control is good as well. There are slight delays with some characters depending on which combination of moves you do, and it is sometimes hard to break out of a combo when you want to, thus opening yourself up to be attacked, and this can cause frustration. I know it bugged me!! You can save the game after each level if you want to turn it off, and if you do 'die' during a level then there are often checkpoints as you progress through, and you will likely return to the latest of these as opposed to going all the way back to the beginning of the level.

I recommend buying this for your kid. It helps, naturally, if they are already Ben 10 fans, but if not, it's a good way of introducing them to what is a quite entertaining TV series that seems to have taken the market by storm. You can't go anywhere without seeing or hearing a mention of Ben 10 these days, and this game is one of the many products that get a thumbs up from me.

Summary: Ben 10 Alien Force for the Wii - great game