Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, £25-£40.
Age 12+

You don’t necessarily expect great things from a movie tie-in, but Rise of the Silver Surfer is a real turkey. Your task is to guide the four superheroes of the title through an extended version of the new film’s plot – little more than a series of mindless scraps. The developers have tried to break the monotony of these setpiece battles with the occasional puzzle, largely unsuccessfully. Even when you get to fly as the Human Torch (one of the four characters you control) using the motion-sensitive capabilities of the PS3’s controller to bank left and right, it doesn’t quite work.

This is a game so pedestrian that even the prospect of killer space monkeys cannot make it shine. The graphics on the “next generation” console versions occasionally look respectable, but for the most part are wretchedly bland, and the badly rendered video sequences are startlingly inept.

Although it’s marginally more fun with three other players, there’s no option to play online. Fans of comic-book superheroes should look instead to Marvel Ultimate Alliance. “This is so much fun,” the Human Torch keeps crowing. If only.

BACKGROUND

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Sunday Times review

• Game Review - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

BACKGROUND

• Fantastic Four

• Film: A blast from the past

• The comic strip presents... Jessica Alba profile

The new superheroes

From Wonder Woman to Tintin, what feeds Hollywood’s love affair with comic-book heroes?

Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

• Times Online Film Trailers