American summers typically spell an assault of big-budget popcorn flicks in cinemas, and this year is no different. And just like previous years, comic books continue to provide a rich source of kindling for the Hollywood machine to produce one superhero movie after another. While standouts like Batman Begins and Sin City points to a hopeful future, it is films like Fantastic Four that remind us the assembly-line is alive and well and more prolific than ever. That said, being the ever-dutiful consumer, I still queued up for my ticket and M&M's and Mega Coke, and joined a crowded theatre in celebration of mediocrity. And it's most likely for habitual consumers like me that the Fantastic Four game was produced.

In Fantastic Four, you play as all four members of the titular cosmic energy-afflicted team as they learn to wield their newfound abilities and eventually use them to combat Evil, and robots. The story of the game follows that of the film, albeit with numerous subplots thrown in before the final confrontation with Dr. Doom - a handful of villains are introduced and arse-kicked, and a truckload of action added. While much of the additional narrative exists for the sake of action/length, it does make for a more superhero-esque experience than the movie which consists of, well, the final confrontation preceded by a lot of day-time soap quality melodrama and lame one-liners.

Fantastic Four is a linear brawler that sees the foursome moving from room to room and beating up anything that moves. The team comprises of Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman) who can project force fields to damage foes and protect herself as well as turn invisible and execute stealth kills; her larger-than-life brother Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) who is translated into the game as a hovering man on fire that throws fireballs; and Ben Grimm (The Thing) who gets whacked with the ugly stick and inherits rock-hard skin as well as super-strength. The team is rounded out by Mr. Fantastic himself, Reed Richards ' an agile and rather elastic superhero with a knack for hacking computer terminals.

You will have control over a single character at a time (with the AI manipulating the rest of your team) and can switch between available characters easily with the D-pad. Instead of having the Fantastic Four battling evil as a team, much of the game limits you to play with just two superheroes ' 2 also happens to be the upper limit for the game's co-op mode. The context of the game would have lend itself well to some four-player co-op action, but seeing as the rather unresponsive camera can wreak havoc in existing single or 2 player modes, a 4 player mode is probably asking for even more pain.

The unique powers of each hero make for an initially interesting experience when you learn the different moves and abilities of each member of the Fantastic Four. The game does a good job of introducing each character and his/her powers so that by the end of the first chapter you will hopefully have mastered the controls. Not that the game has complex controls and it doesn't take long for one to realize that the characters have fairly similar powers that, although differ in appearance, do the exact same thing. It doesn't help either that the controls can feel somewhat clunky and translate to some fairly bland animation onscreen.

While you are certain to still favour certain characters, the beat-em-up nature of the game makes playing as Mr. Fantastic and The Thing much easier than the Storm siblings as they can dish out more raw damage with their fists. The Invisible Woman make for an interesting experience as she can turn invisible for short stretches of time and sneak behind enemies to execute a stealth kill. It doesn't always work well, but the option is there if you wish to avoid a few battles. The Human Torch, on the other hand, feels rather underpowered as his projectile attacks are not only weak, but targeting becomes an issue as well especially in crowded rooms.

Combat aside, the superpowers of the foursome are also used to interact with their environments in order to overcome obstacles and progress further. For example, Reed Richards can hack computer terminals to open doors and Johnny Storm can weld things. This is a novel concept that is unfortunately wasted in Fantastic Four. Whenever you encounter a coloured icon in the game, you can select the corresponding superhero (Blue for Reed, Yellow for Ben, White for Sue and Red for Johnny Storm) to initiate one of the game's mini-games that are almost insultingly simple. Most of them require you to mash buttons quickly, or rotate your analog stick a bit' even the 'hacking' game is so straightforward that it makes the Splinter Cell hacking game look like nuclear physics.

These segments, instead of offering some variety in gameplay, punctuate the action at random intervals with stupid exercises that add nothing to the game's appeal. Even if you are a gaming-toddler for whom these mini-games seem to be designed, I'll bet you'd rather be button-mashing for the sake of beating up digital villains rather than doing it to' line up some lines, or to push the right button in time.

The game suffers from some very middling visuals, with barely decorated rooms that fail to distinguish itself from the next room. And even though you can break certain objects in the game, or pick them up and throw them, the animation just doesn't make it feel exciting. The characters fare a little better, but some of their animations during combat does little to make them feel powerful. Fantastic Four also sounds about as unenthusiastic as it looks, even with the principal actors from the film lending their voices to the game. Lines are delivered without any of the attitude or (dare I say it) emotion that were abundant in the movie, and even in combat, nothing sounds very exciting, with punches landed soundly flat and rather hollow.