Push Button B

Game: Ultraman: Little Adventure
Purchased from: Big Lots
Price paid: $6.00
Platform: PC

I never really bothered to familiarize myself with Ultraman, so all I really know about him is that he looks kind of like a guy wearing a robot costume and fights other things that look like guys wearing other costumes. So I really didn’t know what to expect when I picked up Ultraman: Little Adventure. All I had to go on was the stuff that they put on the back of the box: three screenshots, a vague description, and the corner proudly proclaiming “Ages 5 & Up”, which isn’t really all that descriptive, but is enough to sway me into buying a game, apparently.

Ultraman plays a lot like Pac-Mania, but since you’ve probably never actually played Pac-Mania, that probably doesn’t help you. Picture regular Pac-Man, change the viewpoint to 3/4 overhead, and make the nondescript mazes into nondescript cityscapes, and you’re starting to get there.

You guide Ultraman (or Ultraman Taro, or Ultraman Ace, whoever they are) and walk around something that looks like it came directly out of SimCity grabbing ‘crystals’ that are scattered all over the place. Grab ‘em all, and head toward the teleporter to go to the next level. Easy, right?

Hah! You wish!

Standing in your way are monsters with names that I’ve never heard of and can’t spell. Just be content to know that they’re generic, monstery things bent on keeping you from completing your civic duty. And by “bent on keeping you from completing your civic duty”, I mean “kind of wander around the maze aimlessly and bump into you from time to time”. Which isn’t even as debilitating as I’ve made it sound. They just kind of bump into you and flail around while you lose precious energy. Your defense? Other than your smarts, Ultraman can shoot energy beams to temporarily take out the guys that stand in his way.

Typical gameplay shot. I don't know who any of those guys are.

And that’s pretty much it.

Yeah, the layouts of the levels change (“25 different stages” the box hollers at me), and there are some wimpy obstacles in the way on some of them (switches that raise and lower bridges? sweet!), but nothing special.

There’s nothing wrong with this game, exactly, but there’s nothing particularly great about it, either. You just guide Ultraman around one generic level after another, solving puzzles mostly without actually trying, and generally just passing a few minutes of your time.