Justice League Heroes

Format PlayStation 2

Developer Snowblind

Publisher

Genre Action, Adventure, Role Playing

When it comes to comic-book scraps, the biggest battle lies not on the pages but between rival publishers DC and Marvel. The latter got in an early blow with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, but now it's DC's turn to fight back with the very similar Justice League Heroes.

Both games actually take their cue from the X-Men Legends academy of isometric action coupled with a simple role-playing system for levelling up your superheroes. Here you spend points upgrading their powers rank by rank while at the same time augmenting them with boosts such as damage, endurance or good old-fashioned luck to increase the chance of a critical hit. It's basic, yet allows you to customise each superhero however you want.

Every superhero has a specific set of superpowers: Superman has a powerful uppercut, heat vision and freeze-breath; Batman uses a standard batarang and a sonic batarang that causes bats to attack an enemy; Wonder Woman can lasso enemies and deflect attacks with her bracelets; Zatanna uses magic to slow enemies and turn them into rabbits; Martian Manhunter can shapeshift and fire energy blasts; The Flash is full of speedy moves such as his tornado attack; and the unlockable Green Lantern has a powerful hammer attack and can create a cage around an enemy. Using special powers drains your energy meter, but both this and the health bar automatically recharge.

Every mission features two superheroes determined by the story or the setting, and you can switch control between them at will or get a mate to join in as the second character. In many missions you'll need to use the pair tactically, for example in a boss battle against Brainiac we had the weaker Batman destroy a number of generators that the metallic mentalist was using to recharge his health while the stronger Superman distracted him.

It's the attention to detail that impresses most about Justice League Heroes so far, and if the missions prove varied enough it could be round one to DC.

PSW Staff