Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis

Rumbles of revolt stir amongst the populace.

NA release: 30th July 2003
JP release: N/A
EU release: N/A
Developer: Lucky Chicken Games
Publisher: TDK
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

Aquaman isn’t exactly the most popular character, especially prior to Jason Mamoa playing the role. So you would think that a video game adaptation for the character would need to work hard to introduce the character to new people, making his backstory and powers clear. Not only did Lucky Chicken not do that, but this is also based on a very specific iteration with long hair and a hookshot for a hand. We have no introduction to him, his allies or his enemies. The story is also told in comic book panels (using in-game models with hair painted on top) with no voice acting or movement. Not very engaging.

The gameplay itself is also not engaging. Most of the game is just swimming in a straight line, following an arrow in the corner. There’s rarely anything to swim around, nowhere where speed is all that important and there’s nothing interesting to look at. Most of the levels are going around an incredibly bland version of Atlantis that you could easily reuse as Metropolis if you remove the water effect. That said, even Superman 64’s Metropolis is far more visually interesting than this game. Sometimes you get to use your hookshot to destroy an item (the only thing it’s used for, it’s not used in combat), and for the main missions that’s the main variety.

Combat is equally dull. There’s a ton of combos, but only the basic “bash one button three times” ones actually work. Every single enemy in the game feels the same to fight (including the final boss, which feels like a regular enemy with a bigger health bar). When you get close to an enemy, you get “locked” into essentially a 2D combat. The enemies will block often, usually tied precisely to your input (they’re not reacting to what you’re doing, they’re literally doing something when you press the attack button), something especially noticeable when you try to grab and they do the exact same grab animation in the exact same frames to block it.

There are a handful of ship missions, usually destroying a big target by shooting obvious weak points. These do have some vaguely interesting sights, but are not fun at all, and oddly are far, far easier than the regular game, even the last one just fades out within moments as it loads the next comic panel.

With Aquaman’s powers of communicating with fish, you’d think that there would be a healthy fish population in Atlantis, but the city is devoid of life. Instead, the only sea life you’ll see are your special attacks (which are disabled on some levels) where a dolphin or shark swims into the enemy and the enemy fades away. No attack or recoil animation, the only interesting thing is that sometimes the enemies are upside down for no reason and the dolphin spears them in the crotch. And that’s the most you’ll get out of this game.

Worst

Despite the fact that Aquaman has always sort of been a B-team DC superhero, the character still feels incredibly short-changed by Battle for Atlantis.
Ryan Davis, GameSpot

Remake or remaster?

No.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis.