Last year I got to review the Ben 10 game for the Wii much to my five-year old's chagrin. I, thought it was a noble first effort, but my son thought it was phenomenal. Clearly our idea of what makes for a really good video game is vastly different. Well, this time, the game shifts gears, much like the TV show; it's been a few years and Ben and his cousin Gwen have grown up a few years. Teen-agers now, Ben has put the Omnitrix back on and has a completely different set of alien heroes in his power. Gwen has become an accomplished sorceress and their former enemy, Kevin Levin, is now the third member of their newly formed team that is looking for Grandpa Max and trying to deal with enemies, both old and new.

Alien Force falls into the same trap the last game did; the fact that Ben only has a few of his 10 heroes. In this case, Ben has access to five of his characters and this is where this title gets off on the wrong foot. Since the game assumes you have prior knowledge of the series and to what is going on, the developers needed to have made it so you had access to all 10 aliens from the get-go. I understand why they did this, but it still isn't right. Now at the beginning you only start off with Swampfire, the alien who burrows underground like a plant, but then also throws flame. And as you progress, you gradually unlock the other four aliens. But more than that, the game allows you to unlock new attacks from each alien, which totally makes sense, because Ben hasn't had too much time with them, and therefore is sort of figuring it out as he goes.

 
"I don't think I like that look in your eye there big guy."

Now as far as that "only start out with a single alien" thing, as you play, you will often run across hidden items, including the several different colored Plumber's badges that are found in strange out-of-the-way places that are only accessible by specific aliens. Often times, you will run across one of these badges and Gwen will give a voice over stating you need "X" alien here; only, you don't have that alien yet. So the game, in order to make sure you are getting some sort of challenge, forces you to replay levels as aliens once you have the one needed to access a badge. I am not sure its nothing more then a lame way to give players a 100% when it comes to finding all the hidden stuff, but hey, that's some people's bag - it's just not mine.

The game controls using the Wii-mote and nunchuk attachment. You control your character (you do play as all three by the end of the game) with the nunchuk thumbstick and the various attacks by pressing the buttons in a specific order or simply by flicking the Wii-mote around. When you gain enough experience, you can add another special move to the aliens like I said before. The special moves are usually just a simple combination, and I could pull them off quite easily. I hate to admit it, but I was thinking about how this might be something worth playing, and then the first chapter ended. About 20 minutes later my children kept getting mad at me and I had to turn the game over to them. I guess you could say, though, that while the controls aren't as dialed in as I would have liked (there is some breakdown when fighting several enemies at the same time and you are trying to hammer out some cool moves), but for a game clearly aimed at fans of the series, this does meet some expectations.

 
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, when I said I needed a light, I meant something totally different!"

But there is some negatives to go with this; for one, the game is very linear, as you move forward, you will often run into invisible walls that will not come down until all bad guys in the area are killed. This can be frustrating as this was common in side-scrolling platformers from the late 80s. I didn't care for it and neither did my sons. I should mention at this point that two people can play this game at the same time. Yet in another blunder of staggering zaniness, you can't play as another member of the team, you play as the same character, and what's worse, they look exactly the same, no different colored clothes or nothing. This is really confusing, especially for little kids, at whom the game is aimed.

Graphically the game is really middle of the road - no standout graphics and even the light sourcing is somewhat restrained. This is bad because many of the special alien attacks involve bright explosions or flame. Character models are somewhat similar but not as clean as I would have liked. Heck, even the super alien Humoungasaur seems out of proportion for what the TV show has established. But what is worse, really worse, is the low quality CG cut scenes that move the game forward in plot. They are pretty dark, have no clean look to them and the rendering is simply pedestrian.

 
"Remember when Randy Johnson threw that fastball and it hit that bird? Let's see if I can recreate it."

They did manage however to get the voice actors from the animated series to voice the characters. They did a good job for what they had to work with and the voice acting is a sunny spot in an otherwise gloomy audio portion of the game. The hero music really lacks the theme of the original TV show and the sound effects are badly restrained. If I could transform into a hulking super-strong alien, then there would be all sorts of massive booming sounds going on.

Gameplay: 6.2
Some interesting ideas that are not followed through completely.

Graphics: 5.0
The cut scenes are disappointing, the in-game action is nothing special, the game has a real lackluster look to it.

Sound: 5.5
The voice work is good because the actors know their material and can make it work. The rest of the audio is a disappointment.

Difficulty: Easy

Concept: 5.0
While the idea of making a Ben 10 game is a good one, this one falls far short of expectations.

Multiplayer: 4.5
What a letdown; you can't play as the other members of the team, just your identical twin.

Overall: 5.1
Well, I was hoping for something a bit more in line with the show, and while you are playing as Ben, Gwen and Kevin, the game makes sure to take most of the fun out of it.