Thor

I don't know what's more shocking... that Hollywood took a comic book like The Mighty Thor and made it into a film that actually turned out good or that SEGA (They of the two monstrously crap Iron Man tie in games) produced a tie in game that is actually fairly decent... for what it is at least.

Serving as prequel to the recent movie, Thor: God of Thunder's plot echoes many of the plot elements of the film: Asgard is attacked by Frost Giants, and in his anger the arrogant thunder god Thor heads off across the dimensions to teach the leader of the Frost Giants a lesson in his own home but in doing so inadvertently sets lose an ancient super weapon sealed away by Odin called Mangog, which immediately heads to Asgard to destroy it with it's HATE POWER! Leaving Thor to find a way to save the day by venturing across different realms for whatever reason. It's about the level you'd expect from a licensed movie tie in on the story front, but really... do you care about the story in this game? It does do a decent job having a number of classic Thor villains from the comics make appearances though, I'll give it that.

The gameplay, perhaps inevitably, borrows heavily from the God of War games but, also inevitably, it is a far less polished affair than that series has ever produced. The game follows a linear path with the camera alternating between free and fixed angle depending on the situation. Broken down the game could arguably be called a linear exercise in room clearing, with levels mostly consisting of moving along the straightforward path to the next open clearing or arena where you get sealed in and have to kill everything that comes your way until you're let out again and continue until you reach the boss of the level. There are some small variations throughout on this formula, but fighting is pretty much the majority of what you can expect. Thankfully though, the combat is actually not TOO bad... it's rough around the edges and combos aren't very well implemented, but I definitely got a degree of satisfaction from playing it. Thor has a fairly large variety of moves and powers and the game does a good enough job of working his full power set into the gameplay (Though the way the 'flying' is done is a tad cheap for my liking) while also providing a 'just rewarding enough' character development/skill acquisition system that can make even the most initially crap seeming powers (Hello Wind Burst) a real asset towards the end. The boss battles will have a real ring of familiarity for those of you familiar with also fairly recent lame God-of-War-em-up Castlevania Lord of Shadows, as the bosses are usually huge hulking figures that are all but impervious to regular attacks so you have to discern their weakness (Which usually involves dodging a charge attack or smashing bits of their armour) and exploit it until you get a chance to begin 'climbing' over their bodies, moving to specific parts to wear down their defenses or destroy weapons via all-too-unforgiving quick time button sequences. The combat does what it has to and for the most part it works but it is fairly repetitive and sometimes annoying, with non-combat gameplay sequences (Platforming especially) being so roughly implemented it can get infuriating at times. It CAN be an enjoyable game... when it isn't making you wish you had an actual hammer to throw at your TV screen.

Visually it's mostly very average with the occasional really nice looking piece of scenery and sometimes patchy framerates. I suppose it does a decent job with enemy scale and numbers, but ultimately, when you compare this to the likes of God of War 3 it does look very amateurish. Soundtrack is horribly generic and voice work is bland. Even having Chris Hemsworth doing Thor's voice does little to help seeing as no one else from the film voices their respective characters. Whoever that is voicing Odin does the WORST Anthony Hopkins impression I have ever heard.

As movie tie ins go, this is probably something you could consider the 'upper end of the spectrum' on that front, which would probably qualify it in the 'lower middle end' of the overall game spectrum at best. It isn't a BAD game as such, definitely not in the way all of Sega's previous Marvel games have been at least, but it can be very repetitive and formulaic and perhaps also a tad short and light on challenge. Saying that, if you could pick this up for say... a tenner or so, then I'd say you'd probably be pleased enough with what you get here but at full price it's a definite 'no-no' game. If you want a cheap, enjoyable Marvel movie game, then Wolverine is probably still the best you'll get (I really liked that game)... However I'd say Thor runs a close second... or at least it will when it gets cheap.

BIFF! POW! "AIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!" CRASH! SLAMMM!!!! These are all sounds emanating from my living room as I trashed it while playing THE single worst game I have ever, ever played. I am an average gamer in terms of skill. I have completed and enjoyed games such as The Force Unleashed I & II; Arkham Asylum; Arkham City; Marvel Ultimate Alliance I & II; Oblivion. You can probably see a trend there. I like epic, heroic-type games and I thought 'Thor God of God-Awfulness' would be a winner.

Sadly, I can only warn you dear reader: 'Whosoever Buyeth This Game Shall Surely Be Consumed By The Power of Frustration.' Sega have committed a crime by publishing this game. I would not buy it for a single unit of whatever currency your country issues. Let us visit the runes:

GAMEPLAY 0/5
Stop playing that game, Johnny, you'll make your eyes bleed. If you buy this game, be prepared to go through the same stage again and again and again and again and again. Oh, and again and again. Picture Bill Murray about three quarters of the way through Groundhog Day or that episode of Stargate where Tilk's trapped in a simulation and keeps dying over and over. To get through the cheap (in every conceivable lingual nuance of the word 'cheap'), you need to time a button press and avoid attacks whilst your camera decides whither it goeth of its own accordeth. Be prepared for your most dazzling attacks to be utterly meaningless. You have to engage in a stupid button mashing/ timing contest while giants massage your ribs with metal. Meanwhile, also know that Thor moves like he's swimming in treacle whilst big, burly giants are five times faster than him. Similarly, many of his moves start out uni-directional and will often just swivel at the last moment away from your enemies harmlessly into the distance. Don't. Oh just don't.

GRAPHICS & SOUND 3/5
This (and the fact that Amazon don't allow zeroes) is the only reason this game scores anything. The key character models are pretty decently done and Hemsworth makes an iconic Thor. The lesser characters are poor though, but that's me being picky. In sum, it's no Arkham (or even Captain America Super Solider), but it ain't Iron Man (gargle, spit, shudder).

STORY 2/5
The writers of this game must have been even more frustrated than me. It's set before the movie plot - but anyone who's seen the movie immediately sees that the game would totally unhinge the movie plot. First of all, Thor would know Loki is a villain (unless he's God of Thtupid as well) and Odin would know Thor could never be Ruler of Asgard (unless he went through the entire video game with his eyepatch on the wrong eye and Loki hit him (and the rest of Asgard) with the Spell of Total Idiocy. GAHHHH! GRRRRR!

REPLAY 0/5
Didn't finish/ couldn't finish it, so I'll never know will I?

BOTTOM LINE 0/5
Verily, I have warned thee! Know you this though. Though this game be the spawn of Sludgeo, God of err... Sludge, and Iron Ma..n..n.. t..w...o... (gargle, spit) is even worse, Captain America Super Soldier is actually really, really good if you like superhero games. See my review on that for why.

Ok so this game isn't exactly great but for the price of £10 (what I paid) I think it's great the gameplay is really fun, the campaign is longer than most movie superhero games and the unlockables, upgrades and collectibles keep you entertained along the way. The down sides are that the graphics are pretty bad, there is no free roam and there is no mission select but like I said if you can get this for £10 like I did I think it's pretty good. I also recommend the green lantern movie game that is also a really fun superhero game to add to your collection.