Fantastic Four is a 1997 Beat 'em Up video game developed by Acclaim made for the PlayStation, based on the Fantastic Four comics.
When New York comes under attack by an army of Moloids, the Fantastic Four comes to the rescue and discovers their old nemesis, Dr. Doom, is behind everything. They must then travel across the Mole Man's underground lair, the Sub-atomic universe, Kang the Conqueror's World and Atlantis before travelling back in time to Medieval Doomstadt to confront Dr. Doom.
The game allows up to four players to participate, with the use of the PlayStation Multitap.
For games related to the film series post-2000, see the pages for Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Flame On or Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Fantastic Four for the PlayStation contains examples of:
- Background Boss: The giant Moloid monster and the first boss attacks the four from the background with it's fists, and the four must avoid his attacks while battling low-level Moloids. But there will be giant rocks periodically flung out of the ground with each punch from the monster, and the player can use their special moves to send those rocks flying into the background and damage the giant Moloid.
- Barrier Warrior: The Storm siblings, Sue the Invisible Woman and Johnny the Human Torch, prefers using defense-based moves, unlike Mr. Fantastic and The Thing who specializes in attacking. Sue can create forcefields around her which can damage surrounding opponents and even launch them like a Bubble Gun, while Johnny on the other hand generates an Elemental Barrier made of fire.
- Be the Ball: One of Mr. Fantastic's attacks have him turning himself into a bouncing rubber ball that can ram into multiple foes simultaneously.
- Fake Longevity: The game would be a lot, a lot, a lot shorter without the mini-stages where the players fight the Hulk, Dragon-Man, or Iceman. Or if the stages are skippable, which might as well since they do NOT have any impact on gameplay.
- Final Boss: Appropriately enough, the game's final stage ends with the Four battling their old enemy, Dr. Doom, after tracking him down to his lair in Doomstadt Fortress.
- Fish People: Namor's minions in the Atlantis stage are fish-men, who resembles aquatic counterparts of the common humanoid mooks.
- Giant Mook:
- There are mutated, orange-furred Killer Gorilla enemies (seriously, what's with giant gorillas and superhero games from the early 90s?) larger than the common mooks and tanks a lot more hits, but they're quite slow and hardly a threat.
- The later level in Kang the Conqueror's world have hairless purple giants which are slightly more dangerous. They can also create a Shockwave Stomp similar to The Thing's.
- The final level in Doomstadt has giant red robots.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: One of the weirdest examples ever put in a video game based on comic books — the level in Central Park have the four fighting the Mole Man's leftover minions, which are mostly Moloids and with some occasional rock beasts thrown in, but halfway into the stage they're attacked by Satan (or at least, a Big Red Devil resembling him) who appears only in the background, but constantly tries frying the four with his Eye Beams. Sadly you can't fight him, after defeating all enemies in the foreground Satan then leaves you alone and the game goes on as normal.
- The Goomba: The Moloids from the first stage are weak, pathetic, pint-sized troglodytes shorter than any of the players, attacks by throwing slow projectiles, and are crushed in just a handful of hits. They do show up in larger numbers as the stage progresses, however.
- Guest Fighter: Marvel's Dragon-Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iceman shows up in-between stages as sparring opponents for the Four to beat up. They don't really have any purpose other than to extend the games by a little - the battles can't be skipped, but if the player lose the fight they won't suffer any life penalties, and the game continues like normal.
- Healthy Green, Harmful Red: The player character's life meter is displayed a vertical green bar next to the character's symbol (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, The Thing or She-Hulk), in one of the corners of the screen. To indicate decrease of health, the green bar becomes dark red in colour.
- Mecha-Mooks: Dr. Doom's soldiers in the final level are robots. They do not look mechanical initially, but after infiltrating Doomstadt fortress, the four then enters a production facility where a giant claw repeatedly collects completed robots out of a cauldron where they're being mass-produced.
- Monstrous Scenery: The (very short) Atlantis stage have a giant octopus in the background just chilling there, as the four battles Namor and his mooks in the foreground. The octopus doesn't attempt to interfere with the fight in any way and simply ignore everything happening around it.
- Mythology Gag: The first stage have the Four battling hordes and hordes of Moloids before taking on the giant Moloid the stage's boss, harkening back to the four's first comic book issue. The boss arena in fact looks almost exactly like the first cover issue of the Fantastic Four comics, the giant Moloid halfway sticking out of the ground in the city while the four battles him.
- Racing Minigame: In between stages, there's a mini-racing game featuring the four, one which the player controls, that is entirely optional. Players gain no points for partaking in it, and they can choose NOT to participate (like putting down their controllers until the timer runs out) without affecting gameplay in any way.
- Rock Monster: The second stage after the four defeats the Giant Moloid have the Mole Man sending rock giants - even taller than The Thing - on the four. They're slightly faster than the giant gorilla enemies and can take quite a bit of damage before going down.
- Shockwave Stomp:
- The two powerhouse of the team, Mr. Fantastic and The Thing, can do this as a special move, the former jumping into the air and expanding into a heavy cube smashing downwards, while the latter smashes his fists into the ground.
- The giant purple brutes in Kang the Conqueror's world can create smaller shockwaves by punching.
- Throw the Mook at Them: The Mole Man is confronted in his quarters, where he rides a hovering vehicle while sending his Moloids at you. How do you hurt him? By hurling Moloids into the Mole Man's ride, which will damage him. The stage will generate infinite Moloids until the Mole Man's defeated, so there's plenty of mooks to fling around.
- Tine Travel Stage: The final stage have the four - having collected all the components for Mr. Fantastic to re-activate his Time Machine - traveling back to Medieval Doomstadt, to confront Dr. Doom.
- Under the Sea: The "Atlantis" level where the four takes on Namor, the Sub-Mariner. It plays out like any other ordinary level though (save for aesthetics full of marine life) - the four can breathe underwater thanks to Mr. Fantastic's inventions. Somehow, the Human Torch can use his fire-based attacks in this particular stage as well.
- The Unfought:
- Galactus is mentioned at one point in-game, but sadly you don't get to fight him.
- While you fight copies of Kang the Conqueror, you don't face Kang himself, as the level is based on attacking Kang's universe.
- Unique Enemy: The final stage has the four fighting Doom's robot army, and among them is a random red tentacled creature who's one-of-a-kind.
- Visual Pun: If you repeatedly use the same moves or attacks, over and over again, the game will show a "cheese" icon next to your stats, calling you a "cheesy player" for over-relying on a single tactic. (Inversely, players who switches tactics constantly, use a creative combination of attacks, and execute multiple special moves within a short time period will gain a "Thumbs Up" icon) - and NO, again this doesn't impact scoring or gameplay in any way.
