If I had a mega mind I know what I’d do – develop a game that’ll sit on top of the charts for months so I’d be able to go to sleep on a mattress stuffed with £50 notes. By playing this CGI movie tie-in I’d say that developers THQ Australia don’t share the same dream as I do. If they’ve always dreamt of making a very lackluster game though, then with Megamind: Ultimate Showdown their collective dreams have been fulfilled.
Three hours is all it takes to see and do everything on offer, and amazingly, even though it’s short it’s also incredibly repetitive. The four city-based levels only have two different enemy types per area, the puzzles are recycled constantly and Megamind’s helper Minion blurts out the same speech samples throughout. Even upon encountering a “puzzle†that you’ve already “solved†three times before – like turning on a fire hydrant to douse a fire – he’ll explain exactly what you need to do.
Needless to say, it won’t tax your mind at all. It’s also impossible to die (you just loose a few of the spinning blue orbs you’ve collected) and Megamind’s projectiles automatically lock onto the bad guys, thus making combat a case of frantically tapping the fire button. Once you’ve upgraded the power of a weapon enemies can be killed within seconds of appearing on screen and although you can also punch them when up close there are no combos, counter attacks or anything of the sort. There are a few different weapons – including a shrink ray – but they’re only used to shift large objects or to power-up a switch that’ll open a door or similar. Boss battles show a little degree of creativity yet they can all be beaten without a struggle. There are achievements for killing bosses without dying and I can’t imagine anybody not getting these on their first attempt.
The only feature of note is that it looks respectable enough – the cityscape backdrops stretch for miles and the fire, explosion and water effects are all alluring. A friend can play in two-player too, but whether you’d be able to convince them to join in is another thing entirely.