Marvel Super Hero Squad

Squat proportions and oversized heads were the whole pitch here. The Super Hero Squad cartoon turned Marvel's roster into toy-shelf caricatures, and the 2009 tie-in follows that logic to its natural conclusion: Iron Man, Hulk and Wolverine as stubby action figures punching their way through stages that behave more like playsets than levels. Doctor Doom is after fragments of the shattered Infinity Sword. That is as much plot as the game needs, and it knows it.

The combat is a light brawler built for small hands. Each hero has a basic string, a heavy attack and a signature special that costs a meter, and enemies arrive in waves that break apart with almost no resistance. What holds it together is the pairing system: you pick two heroes per stage and swap between them, with the second one handled by a friend on the couch or by an undemanding AI. Drop-in co-op was the right call. Most of the game's genuine moments come from two players flailing at the same crowd of henchmen.

Blue Tongue handled the console versions, and the team's work shows in the presentation more than the systems. Character models carry the show's silhouettes cleanly, the voice cast keeps the cartoon's tone of gentle self-mockery, and the PS2 build runs without the frame problems that dogged a lot of late-generation licensed work. The level design is the weak part. Corridors open into arenas, arenas empty out, a door unlocks, repeat.

Judged as a children's beat 'em up it does what it set out to do, which is let a seven-year-old feel like the Hulk for an afternoon without ever being told they failed. Judged against the wider PS2 action library it is thin, repetitive and over before it develops a second idea. Late 2009 was well past the console's prime, and this is very much a game made for the install base rather than the hardware's ceiling.

There is something honest about a licensed product that never pretends to be for anyone but its actual audience. It does not pad itself with difficulty spikes or collectible checklists to fake depth for the parents. The heroes bounce, the bad guys pop, and the credits arrive while the novelty is still intact.