Can you help Ben 10 break-out?
Ben 10 – Aliens 0
Unless you’ve never seen children’s TV and avoided going to any shops, you’ve probably seen and even secretly enjoyed the antics of the rather cheeky boy-hero, Ben 10.
For those of you who aren’t as familiar to this cartoon, Ben is a normal kid who has the special ability to transform into a variety of alien creatures, and, with the help of their individual attributes, saves the day. In this particular game, there’s no exception to the rule.
You start the game seeing Ben’s cousin, Gwen, being kidnapped by some rather unfriendly aliens. As you’d expect, it’s up to you to chase after them and try to free her from these alien beings. To do this you must play a series of Arkanoid, block-busting levels with a twist.
To begin with, you are only able to play as Ben rather than using the powerful Omnitrix and transforming into one of the powerful alternative characters. You must bounce and ricochet a ball from a force-field you possess at the base of the screen and try to guide the ball to hit the blocks on the screen. To complete the level you must successfully clear it of all the blocks.
This task is not as straight forward as you may at first believe as the blocks often take more than one hit to destroy. Also to make things even more difficult, you have aliens and other objects which hinder your progress. Whether they fire back at you, prove impenetrable to the impact of the ball or simply barge into you, there’s more than a challenge offered by this title.
On the upside, you have the ability to unlock all of the characters that Ben can transform into. This gives a nice touch to the game, as you can temporarily become faster or more powerful for example – which helps even up the score with those pesky alien kidnappers!
The great news is that if you do enjoy the series, you’ll find this game a perfect extension to the brand and thoroughly enjoyable. The temporary power-ups give you more randomness and unpredictability and combining this with the mini-games, offers you a lot of depth and playability which other similar games can’t compete with.
For me, I found the game a little slower than some of the other block-busting style games. This is part down to the cut-away scenes where Ben is talking with his assistant Kevin, and part down to how the ball flies through the air during the gameplay itself. Rather than detract from the game, it actually helped keep me playing as I found myself following the story and by having a fraction longer to aim my shot, it meant I could clear the level a little quicker.
On the downside, there are only three chapters to master, but I guess I’m being selfish wanting the game to never end. In fairness, however, each stage has many levels within them as well as mini-games like smash the boulder and hit the alien invaders (which are virtually the same thing but not quite).
Overall then, this game has it all - addictiveness, fun, good graphics, mini-games to keep it fresh and aliens which you can blast with a ball or five?! What more could a boy (or girl) want? Ah yes, an Omnitrix of their very own!
Rating 88%
Positives
Fun and addictive
Colourful and well detailed
Mini-games to keep you playing and to give a bit of a break from hitting inanimate objects
This can be enjoyed by Ben10 fans and block breaking lovers alike
Negatives
Quite repetitive
A little slow which may deter more advanced gamers
Quite easy and without any option to change difficulty setting
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