Fantastic Four is a video game based on the film of the same name. It was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo Gamecube in June 27th, 2005. It has the actors of the film reprise their roles including Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd and Julian McMahon.
The game contains examples of these tropes
- Adaptation Expansion: The game includes several additional characters that never made it into the film, allies or villains alike, including Nick Fury, Blastaar, Yancy Street Gang, Mole Man, Diablo, Puppet Master, Dragon Man, and Annihilus.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: Most of the villains' powers are derived from the cosmic storm in some ways.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- Due to Ben immediately being transformed into the Thing, Reed, Sue and Johnny see his new form at Victor's compound instead of at the bridge.
- The fire truck crash was caused by Thing saving a surprised firefighter from getting run over.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Thing meets Alicia Master early on, before the bridge incident.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, the Yancy Street Gang is essentially a group of friends and associates who devote most of their time to harmlessly heckling the Thing, and who have shown a willingness to help the Four on occasion. Here, they're a violent gang of street thugs who kidnap Alicia after she refuses to pay their protection money and try to kill the Thing when he comes to save her.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The final parts of the game involve Victor taking over Baxter Building with his Doombots, while the heroes had to confront him in their home.
- Artistic License – Geography: The cutscene at the start of the Tikal level shows that it's located somewhere in northern Mexico, but it's actually in Guatemala. Not only that, but northern Mexico doesn't have any jungle ecosystem at all, it's desertic.
- Combination Attack: With certain inputs, you can link two of the Four's ultimate abilities to do some heavy Area of Effect damage.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The game lets up to two players assist each other.
- Damsel in Distress: Alicia is kidnapped by the mummies in the museum, but she gets rescued by the Four.
- Evolving Attack: The Four's abilities can be upgraded for more damage, status effects, and bigger visual effects.
- Facepalm of Doom: This is one of Blastaar's grabs, which culminates into blasting the victim's heads.
- Final Boss: Dr. Doom.
- Forced Tutorial: The tutorial is an entire section of levels where the player has to understand the differences between each member, gameplay-wise. It also gives emphasis on the platforming and puzzle sections that can only be solved by a specific member.
- Gangbangers: The Yancy Street Gang. They fight using typical gangster melee weapons such as brass knuckles or steel pipes.
- Giant Mook: Larger Moloids.
- Giant Spider: The team encounters these in the southern Mexican jungle. It's the result of the meteorites radiated by the cosmic storm.
- Great Escape: The team got out of quarantine and must stop Dragon Man and other inmates from breaking out of the Vault.
- How We Got Here: The game opens with Reed, Johnny and Sue losing a three-on-one fight against Dr. Doom. As Sue calls for Ben's name, the latter recovers from the chamber where his powers got removed, then he recalls how everything led up to that point.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The 4 and Doom share the same likeness as their actors.
- King Mook:
- Thug Boss, apparent leader of the Yancy Street Gang
- Mole Man's giant monster Moleoaf is basically an even more gigantic version of a Moloid.
- Ultra Bot, which is a larger version of a Doombot.
- The Mummy King, taller than the other mummies and wears a pharaoh's headdress.
- Let's You and Him Fight: In one level, Thing has to fight the Human Torch.
- Man-Eating Plant: Giant Plant Mutant.
- Mayincatec: The Tikal level.
- Mecha-Mook: Doombots
- Mummy: Hordes of them brought to life by the Puppet Master in the museum.
- Mythology Gag:
- Moleoaf resembles Giganto (the Deviant Mutate
, not the giant whale creature) from the comics. It comes out of a giant hole in the middle of the street where you have to fight it, which is a nod to the cover of the Fantastic Four's first issue◊. - In the Latveria levels, the team uses their comic book appearances and outfits instead of those in the movie.
- Moleoaf resembles Giganto (the Deviant Mutate
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Or combos, to be specific. As you progress through certain levels, you unlock more abilities at your disposal.
- Outside-Context Villain: Annihilus, an alien warlord from another dimension, arrived on Earth due to the cosmic storm affecting the portal.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The game is loosely based on the film with additional content never seen in the film.
- Pre-Rendered Graphics: The game uses these for cutscenes.
- Protection Racket: The Yancy Street Gang.
- Raptor Attack: The raptors brought to life by the Puppet Master in the museum.
- Recursive Canon: Marvel Comics exists in this universe, since the logo can be seen on a building in the Heavy Mech boss fight.
- Save the Villain: In the Vault levels, the (optional) secondary objectives involve trapping escaped convicts back in their cells before the malfunctioning security robots can kill them. If the team knocks out the convicts outside of the cells, it also counts as a failure condition, as if the robots had done it.
- Secret Level: You can unlock Latveria stages, complete with their own unique enemy encounters.
- Shout-Out: Nick Fury's line, "With great power comes great... collateral damage."
- Shows Damage: The console ports (such as the Xbox) have a more powerful engine that adds this effect to the non-human Mooks. For example, you could easily notice parts of the robots' getting detached whenever you attack them.
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Spiritual Successor: To X-Men Legends. - Stealth-Based Mission: There are a few levels where you get to play not as The Thing, but as Ben, who got his cosmic powers stripped. Combat is still possible, but limited. It also crosses with problem-solving, and puzzle sections.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Only a certain member's powers can be beneficial in solving certain puzzle types. Some puzzles may also require a teamwork of two members.
- Mr. Fantastic can stretch his body to reach some previously-unreachable objects. He can also extend himself across a gap to serve as a temporary bridge for his teammates. He's also the only one who can hack into computer terminals.
- The Thing's super-strength allows him to carry, or interact with large or heavy objects.
- Invisible Woman can freeze stuff, and her invisibility is very useful in sneaking.
- Human Torch can easily walk through fire, and certain puzzle elements can only be solved by burning them.
- "Too Young to Die" Lamentation: In the bridge level, a girl trapped inside her burning car scream "I'm too pretty to die!".
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Puppet Master, after the team defeated the things he brought to life at the museum.Puppet Master: Next time, fantastic fools, the Puppet Master will not fail.
