While being able to play as Kevin and Gwen is great on a lot of levels, it actually brings me to one of my major complaints. When playing with a friend, wouldn’t it be great to play as Ben and then either Kevin or Gwen? Well, I thought it would too, but you can’t. You have to be a copy of the character in that level. The only time you can be an additional character is when each of you takes on a different alien form. This was such a bad move in the development of the game. Hopefully, before the next one is made, this will be taken into consideration along with the inclusion of all ten alien forms.

Graphically speaking, Ben 10: Alien Force is both a step up and a step back from Ben 10: Protector of Earth. The modeling for the characters brings a sense of CGI to the cartoon characters. While they look smooth and consistent, only Ben looks great and Kevin looks fair in this translation. Gwen, on the other hand, looks like they took no time to consider the way she looked on the show. She looks more like an evil pixie than the innocent girl next door. The environments also look more flat than they should. More often than not, you are in dullsville. At least with last year’s, there was a reason for the dullness, you were in the Grand Canyon area for most of the game. There is another problem that will annoy you frequently. When new enemies pop onto screen, most of the time, you will glitch from your location to a completely different one; it is very disorienting.

The music from the game is solid enough and comes right from the show, so as long as you are a fan of that soundtrack, you will be just fine there. Also coming from the show are the voice actors and actresses reprising their respective roles. While some characters have a nice array of catchphrases and different vocabulary, some become extremely repetitive, most notably for me was Kevin. In the first level, you are allowed to play as him. If you do, you will quickly try and find the remote so you can mute him.

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When all is said and done, you have to look at Ben 10: Alien Force for what it is – an experience outside of the show. In that area it excels in so many ways. However, there are too many complaints to say that you will have the same awesome experience that Ben and company have when fighting aliens. You will be plagued with glitches when enemies load onto screen, repetitive voice clips, and respawning enemies that reach a whole new level of insanity. The areas of improvement are few, but they do add to the franchise and make room for future improved installments.

By Matthew Walker
CCC Project Coordinator