A game of Titanic proportions? Not quite, but still worth a look.

User Rating: 8 | Teen Titans GC
Teen Titans the video game is based on the DC Comics/cartoon series of the same name. The "Titans" in question (Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven and Starfire) are five youngsters who are adjusting to life as superheroes, defending their home city from the schemings of a multitude of dastardly villains. This game creates it's own unique storyline and is kind of a game within a game. The Teen Titans are anonymously sent a video game which they begin playing in the comforts of their home base, Titan Tower. As they play the game weird things start to happen and they are forced to hit the streets and get to the bottom of it. As they do so the universe around them begins to crumble only it is not their physical universe that is crumbling, but some sort of digital universe. They realize then that they have been transported inside the mysterious video game and are in fact the characters being played in this cyber mystery!

At the game's main menu you have four choices. The first choice is "Story Mode" and this is the main single player component of the game. Upon selecting this option you are whisked away to the first level, and in order to defeat the game you must then complete 14 more afterwards as there is a total of 15 levels in all. You don't have to choose any one character when you start your journey on Story Mode, what's cool about this game is that all five Teen Titans take part in every level and you can switch freely between them at any time you wish. The majority of the levels range from a medium to long length, which is nice, but of course there are a small handful of shorter ones when you have to face down a boss. There are also a couple of short levels near the end that put the Titans inside a couple of classic video games like Pong and Space Invaders, which was kind of a cool little scenario they added. As you make your way through these levels there are quite a few pickups you need to keep your eyes open for. Yellow triangle, orange diamonds and red hexagons all give you points (1,2 & 3 points respectively). The big "T" pickup fills your charged attack meter, the red clock speeds your Titan up and the blue clock slows your enemies down. The orb-like "T" object gives you a full screen attack and the + pickup fills your energy meter. And of course there are health pickups as well. There are also special pickups that will give you tons of points and powerups all in one shot, which include: Trigon Bird, The Source, Soto's Dog, and Silkie. In most of the levels you will also be able to find a Larry the Titan pickup. By doing so you will unlock portions of the gallery art, which is part of the unlockable content in this game. At the end of each level you will be given a summary of how well you performed and also be notified of any unlocks you've managed. On most levels you will unlock a number character fighting moves/combos, new characters, new battle arenas, and if you found Larry the Titan some gallery art as well. I'm not sure just what you have to accomplish in order to unlock the moves/combos, characters and battle arenas, I think you get them simply by completing the level. To get the gallery art though you have to find Larry the Titan . . . and he can be pretty elusive! Your job it to use all these pickups, powerups and unlocked fighting moves to battle your way to the fifteenth and final level of the game and discover the identity of your new adversary!

The second choice from the main menu is "Master of Games" mode and is the multiplayer component of the game (up to 4 players can compete at one time), although you can play it single player if you are an only child like myself! When you choose this mode you are then taken to the character selection screen, and in total there are 36 characters to choose from, which is fantastic! Not all of them will be available at first though, you unlock most of them through your progress in Story Mode. After you select your character and opponents you are then taken to the level selection screen. Most of the battle arenas must be unlocked through your progress in Story Mode as well, there are 13 in total when all is said and done. After this choice is made you are then taken to the battle arena and must fight it out mono a mono in a three round street fight! The first person to win two of the rounds is the victor. Powerups will spawn randomly in the arena as you compete so you can use them to your advantage.

The next choice from the main menu is "Options", and here you can adjust much of the games functionality. The first option you come to is Settings. Here you can adjust the music, sfx, and voice volumes, as well as toggle the rumble and autosave features on and off. Next you come to Controls. You can't adjust the control layout at all, there is only one option for that, but here you can view the control layout if you ever get a little confused. Beats searching for the manual! Extras is the next option and this is where all of the unlockable content the game offers can be accessed. The first thing you'll come to under Extras is Clips where there are two Teen Titans related videos that you unlock as you progress through the game, and you can watch them here. The next three things you'll come under Extras are Gallery 1, 2 and 3, which contain all of the game artwork you unlock during Story Mode by finding the Larry the Titan pickup. In total there are 99 pieces of artwork spread throughout the three galleries. The last option you come to is Credits. Choose this to see who brought this wonderful game to life for us!

The fourth and final choice from the main menu is "Level Selection". After completing a level in Story Mode, if you want to go back and play it again this is where you gain access to do just that. All of the levels you have successfully completed in Story Mode will be listed here, as well as if you've found the Larry the Titan pickup or not.

Game controls are pretty easy to use in this title. The control stick moves your character around the screen and the C-stick adjusts the camera angle. The A button performs a weak/fast attack, the Y button performs a strong/slow attack, and the X button performs each character's signature special attack (usually some form of projectile weapon). There are a whole whack of combos you can perform in this game, just press these three attack buttons in various combinations to experiment with what works best for each character. You can also hold down each of these attack buttons for a few seconds and you will then perform a more powerful charged attack (takes a portion of your energy meter away in doing so). The L button is used to pick up environmental objects and downed enemies, then press it again to throw said object/enemy. The R button is used to block enemy attacks. The B button makes your character jump (while in air some characters you can make double jump by pressing it again). You can also perform aerial attacks, just press the B button to jump and then press one of the attack buttons when close to an enemy. Lastly, the left and right directions on the control pad are used to switch between the Teen Titan characters.

As for the game's presentation, the graphics and sound were very well done. Certainly not top drawer, but not far from it, the audio/visual was a very pleasant aspect to this game for me. Navigating menus is a little weird because you can only use the control pad and not the control stick though. Not a big deal but I always found myself forgetting that fact! The pros to this game in my opinion were first, it's presentation, as I just discussed. Story Mode was a fairly good length, so the game doesn't fall short on the length factor. There is also a lot of unlockable content in this game and it can be a challenge to find some of it, so that certainly makes things more fun and interesting (and sometimes aggravating!). In terms of cons, there are only two that I found. First, although the game controls are laid out well and easy to understand, their responsiveness wasn't the greatest. Sometimes it seemed as though the game wasn't registering what you were telling it to do, this was especially so when trying to pick up objects and throw them. It wasn't a huge problem, it didn't happen so much that it ruined the game, but it did make things a little frustrating at times. The other major con was the lack of alternative game modes. Although Story Mode was certainly long enough to make it a good game, the alternate game mode was just a street-fighting style multiplayer mode that gets old fairly fast. Another game mode on top of that or just one really good one would have made this game go a lot farther.

For tips and tricks, I don't have that many. When the action gets fast and furious it can be a little busy on screen and you can't make sense of much, just grab all the pickups and powerups that get dropped, don't worry about seeing what they are first! The best tip I can give is to explore every nook and cranny on each level. The Larry the Titan pickup most times is very, very, very hard to find, so you have to be more than thorough. Also, I found I performed a lot better with a couple of specific characters, so I would experiment with all five Teen Titans at first, find the ones that you play well with, and stick with them for the most part.

I bought this game for two reasons. First, because it was cheap! And second, I've always seen stuff on the Teen Titans on TV and in stores but have never really got to know the franchise. I thought this game would at least give me a basic understanding of what they're all about and that it certainly did. It's a pretty solid game, now I want to watch the cartoon!