Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects [PSP]

If you look at your movie receipts from the past few years, you might be inclined to say that Marvel holds the keys to the most valuable properties in the world. And not surprisingly, everyone wants to nab that keychain. Electronic Arts is one of the publishers that bought the license, and has created a 3D arena-based fighter, chock-full of Marvel personalities and some new anti-personalities in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. It's not a bad effort, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

The story revolves around Dr. Van Roekel and his personal mission to create the perfect human. He tried, failed, tried again, and, well, failed again. As a result of all the attempts, he created a handful of so-called Imperfects that you'll eventually face off against throughout the game, leading up to the ultimate battle against Dr. Van Roekel.

Combat is fast and frantic. You're set free in one of seven mostly large environments, and your only goal is to beat your opponent, either by depleting their health gauge or by knocking them over the side of whatever structure you're battling on. (You wouldn't think a ring-out would work when your opponent can fly... but don't get lost in the details.) The main challenge is to keep your opponent in sight. The enemy AI's main tactic is to run and jump around a lot. It's a sound strategy because even though a quick press of the button points you in your opponent's direction and a helpful arrow always shows you the way, it's very difficult to keep them in sight if they're more than a few feet away.

Once you do find your opponent, you can simply pound away on the single attack button, mixing in a throw from time to time for good measure. Each character has special moves that can be performed by combining the attack, throw, or block buttons with the right shoulder button, resulting in fireball projectiles, more brutal throws, or more powerful blocks. A card-collection scheme, which rewards you with ability cards after each match, gives you something pretty to collect but most have minor results in battle.

18 characters provide for a decent amount of variety, but the selection of seven arenas is far too limited, especially since none of them is exactly a good looker. They are destructible, so throwing an opponent into a pillar results in said pillar falling apart in a very satisfying way. But, thanks mostly to the terrible looking textures, the arenas look busted before the fight even begins. Character models are much better and well animated, but the game's selection of sound effects is unfortunately short and repetitive, while the music is mostly forgettable.

Imperfects, as a pure one-on-one fighter, is better than the clumsy home console versions. It provides some entertaining and authentic-looking super-hero combat that Marvel fans will enjoy. But even if you're a hard-core Marvel fan and you're reading this review while wearing your Spider-Man Underoos, you should still wait for this one to hit the bargain bin.