Gaming Target - Game Boy: Daredevil

Written by Jeff Milligan on March 05, 2003

Review: Matt Murdock by day, Daredevil by night, boring game 24/7.

Daredevil Ц he's one of the coolest super-hero's around, complete with his own comic book series, blockbuster movie, and now his own GBA game. It's easy to see (well, maybe not for Daredevil himself) why Griptonite Games would want to create a game on Daredevil, I mean come on, he's a blind guy in a red suit that does crazy acrobatics and beats on bad guys with a billy club. However, Daredevil in the gaming world just doesn't meet the expectations you would expect from such a unique super-hero.

With the theatrical release of Daredevil not too long ago, fans on the series got to see a real life portrayal of the hero in action. The GBA game takes the other route. It instead takes character designs from the comic book series, and adds the story to go along with it. Even the action sequences are used, with the occasional УPoofФ or УZingФ when an enemy is defeated. Players will journey through many locations of NYC, including through sewer systems, on roof tops, and even in the streets themselves.

The object of Daredevil is as basic as they come, punch and kick your way through enemy infested levels to get to the big bad guy himself, Kingpin. The Kingpin, NYC's largest crime boss, has made Daredevil an offer: get paid to take out Kingpin's rival gangs. Being a man of justice, Daredevil declines. However, using some of his close affiliates, Kingpin takes out the gangs himself, and creates the illusion that Daredevil did indeed do it, and was paid for it by Kingpin. So now it's up to Daredevil to clear his name.

Daredevil is an action platform game, which simply means the main action focuses primarily around our hero and his fight for justice. However, it appears that when this game was created, Daredevil's fighting skills were left out. Instead of being able to do the phenomenal acrobatic attacks he's famous for, Daredevil is only able to perform the basic punch-jump-kick. Daredevil's infamous billy club is part of his arsenal, but isn't properly implemented. Instead, you will probably end up relying on the punch button the entire game, which gets old quick. There are power-ups which can be attained, but these too are poorly used and don't do much for the fun-factor.

If Daredevil's fighting skills, or a lack there of, wasn't enough to turn you off, the poor enemy and boss AI might push you over the edge. For some odd reason, your attacks will sometimes go right through the enemy, which leaves you vulnerable for a counter-attack by your foe. After this happens a few times players may get frustrated, as it's quite annoying. Boss fights can be even worse, as there is usually absolutely no strategy involved in defeating them. Instead, you're left to run around and punch whenever the boss gets near you, which in itself can be tedious, as boss movements cannot be anticipated due to their speed and random movements.

One feature that is used nicely is DareDevil's radar sense. If you're familiar with Spider-Man's spidey sense, you'll recognize how this works right away. When Daredevil's radar sense can be used, a signal will go off over his head, which means there is an item or enemy near by that can only be seen by using his special 6th sense. By pressing the L button, you will enable turn on the radar sense, and hidden items can then be seen and attained. Even though this feature is done fairly well, it isn't used very often besides finding power-ups. There is however a certain boss fight in which the sense has to be used in order to achieve victory, which was one of the highlights of the entire game. The game could have benefited a lot if this skill were used more often.

Really big fans of Daredevil might get a kick out of the extras the game has, which are attained by completing certain goals throughout the game, such as collecting tokens and so on. Some extras include still screens from the new movie, alternate costumes for characters, and the original Daredevil comic book art. The extras do add to the replay value, but only if you can motivate yourself to get through the game in the first place.

Graphically, Daredevil has lots of color and good animations, and is overall well done. The comic book style compliments the game well, but could have used a bit more of the УpizzazzФ the comics had. The sound is also done fairly well, with good sound effects and a few catchy tunes. Technically there's nothing great, but there's also nothing horrible, which works fine for Daredevil.