Kick-Ass Review - IGN (original) (raw)

It's definitely a kick to something.

I don't necessarily want to spoil anything up front here, but do you really want to play a game where, after suffering through eight stages of one-note combat, you don't even get to fight the final boss yourself? Even after you just picked up a bazooka? I seriously doubt many will even make it to the last battle of this dull, under-produced beat-em'-up. Within thirty minutes of button-mashing fisticuffs, you've seen everything Kick-Ass has to offer. The only things that change over the next four hours (it is a mercifully short game) are the level architecture and the occasional enemy costume.
Though you can play as Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, or Big Daddy, Kick-Ass unfolds exactly the same. You must pummel your way to the top of the local crime syndicate, punching and smashing wave after wave (after wave) of low-level goons and thugs. There are just two attacks -- normal and heavy -- although you can hit them in different combinations to slightly change up your attack patterns. The heavy attack, for example, at the end of a few good normal attacks sends the bad guy in front of you flying, which is good for enemy management or pushing them into sharp environmental hazards. In fact, enemy management is critical because Kick-Ass rolls them across the screen without any rhythm. One moment you're just beating on a single criminal. The next you are suddenly surrounded by aggressive thugs while a gunman stands off-screen and shoots you in the back.

However, the most lethal enemy in Kick-Ass is actually the camera. Though you can swivel it with the right stick, it is surprisingly unfriendly at the worst moments. During battles in a warehouse and lumber mill, I would get pushed into a corner or against a wall. Suddenly, not only was Kick-Ass not visible, but neither were the enemies on either side of him. By the time I circled the view around, half of my health was gone. This problem was even worse in multiplayer when the camera simply could not decide which hero was the anchor for the action.

Kick-Ass ain't that much of a kick.

Every enemy you beat up releases orange circles, which add to your overall experience. You can level up your hero in three different categories: defense, attack, and special abilities. You will typically get enough experience in a single playthrough to level up one category entirely and another to the halfway point. These upgrades actually make a difference. Juicing your attack power really does make it easier to beat down low- to mid-level enemies. However, ignoring defense will lead to more untimely deaths.

Upgrading special abilities gives you more opportunities to use special moves, such as a powerful slam attack or a rage power-up that makes all attacks temporarily stronger. Don't worry about upgrading the specials. The pacing of Kick-Ass is so poor that you can hit that rage power-up, clobber a bunch of bad guys, and then just backtrack to a quiet spot and wait for the gauge to refill. The need for more special ability power is minimal compared to the usefulness of attack and defense. Interestingly, you can actually reassign upgrade points at any time. This inadvertently adds a little strategy to Kick Ass, as you can drop into the upgrade screen and raise your defense if you ever feel overwhelmed by a sudden swarm of bad guys.

As you play, you unlock three arena mode locations, which are survival rounds. Here, you just see how long you can last against multiple enemy waves. Your experience and upgrades carry over between the normal game and arena, so this is actually a decent place to level up your skills. There are also some hidden comic book covers to collect, which are not terribly hard to find, but do let you view them outside of the action. If you find all eight, you can view the entire first issue of the Kick-Ass comic

Not only is Kick-Ass just not that much fun, but it's also not technically strong either. I'm surprised to see a game with small character models and bland environments slow down as much as Kick-Ass. It would happen at the oddest moments, too. I would hit the rage power-up to deal with a whole squad of thugs and then the game would inexplicably chug as their fallen bodies released orange circles for experience. Orange circles are just too much for the PS3 to handle? Hardly.

Verdict

Kick-Ass is a poor beat-‘em-up that feels rushed at every turn. It’s certainly better than the iPhone version which I had the great misfortune of playing earlier this week, but that was the lowest of hurdles. The action is incredibly repetitious and unoriginal, even if you choose different characters. The pacing is all over the place. The technical issues with the camera and slowdown are bizarre. There are way too many good PSN downloads to grab instead of wasting your time and money on this.

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Kick-Ass Review