2002 video game
Justice League: Injustice for All
is a 2002 video game developed by
Saffire
and published by
Midway Games
for the
Game Boy Advance
. The game is based on the
Justice League
animated television series
and showcases the League's seven members within the context of a
side-scrolling
beat 'em up
with
platforming
elements. The plot centers on the League's efforts to avert global catastrophe carried out by
Lex Luthor
's
Injustice Gang
.
Development commenced upon Midway Games' acquisition of the rights to the
Justice League of America
comic book series and TV series, which took place during an industry-wide trend of video game publishers acquiring comic book superhero licenses. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who regarded it as a short and formulaic brawler indistinct from other entries in the genre.
Gameplay
[
edit
]
Justice League: Injustice for All
is a
side-scrolling
beat 'em up
with
platforming
elements.
[1]
[2]
The player controls the titular
Justice League
's seven members ?
Superman
,
Batman
,
Wonder Woman
,
The Flash
,
Green Lantern
,
Hawkgirl
, and
Martian Manhunter
? as they attempt to thwart
Lex Luthor
's scheme to
brainwash
the world's populace.
[3]
The game is divided into twelve levels, the progression through which is constructed in a non-linear fashion; completing a level creates branching paths to a number of other levels that can be accessed in any order.
[2]
[4]
For each level, the player is assigned two League members who are interchangeable at any time with the select button; the swap will also occur automatically if one character runs out of
health
.
[3]
Apart from jumping and basic attacks, the characters (excluding Batman and the Flash) can fly with the use of the right trigger button, while the left trigger button enables a special technique.
[4]
For example, Martian Manhunter can make himself intangible and pass through walls, while the Flash can use his super-speed to run up vertical surfaces.
[5]
Each level requires the player to locate and destroy one of Luthor's brainwashing devices, as well as defeat a member of the
Injustice Gang
in a
boss
battle.
[3]
Plot
[
edit
]
The Justice League is alerted to robots of Lex Luthor's design invading
Metropolis
. Superman and Wonder Woman fend off the invasion and confront Luthor, who reveals the attack to be a diversion. Batman detects a worldwide pattern of ordinary citizens committing crimes and developing
amnesia
, suggesting brainwashing. As he pinpoints strange frequencies emanating from a volcano in
Hawaii
, the League is alerted to attacks on
Gotham City
by the
Joker
and
Themyscira
by
Felix Faust
, requiring the League to split into teams. The League finds that Luthor has formulated the Injustice Gang, and assigned the Joker, Faust, and
Star Sapphire
to guard transmitting devices. The League splits up once more in search of Luthor's command and control center. While Batman and Hawkgirl prevent
Ultra-Humanite
from activating a brainwashing satellite on the
International Space Station
, the Martian Manhunter and Flash infiltrate
Shade
's Russian stronghold and learn that Luthor is preparing to meet with an extraterrestrial party in
Roswell, New Mexico
, which Batman and the Martian Manhunter fend off. The League determines from data gathered at Roswell that Luthor's base is on the Moon, and they confront Luthor after sweeping the Earth's atmosphere for remaining satellites. Luthor reveals that he had made an arrangement with the extraterrestrials in which they would grant Luthor the League in exchange for Earth. The League defeats Luthor and escape his base before it self-destructs.
Development and release
[
edit
]
On April 29, 2002,
Midway Games
acquired the rights to publish video games based on characters from
DC Comics
'
Justice League of America
comic book series and the
Justice League
animated television series. The deal took place during a widespread industry trend of publishers acquiring licenses for comic book superheroes.
[6]
Justice League: Injustice for All
was developed by
Saffire
under the direction of Brian Christensen, with Midway's Kevin Potter and
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
's Ames Kirshen and Adam Schwenk acting as producers. John and Andrew Nielson respectively served as lead programmer and lead artist, and co-designed the game alongside Jason Ablett. The story was written by Flint Dille, and the audio was created by Rick Bradshaw.
[7]
The game was announced on August 2, 2002,
[4]
and was shipped to North American retailers on November 18. A version for the
PlayStation 2
,
Xbox
, and
GameCube
was in development, but never released.
[8]
Reception
[
edit
]
Justice League: Injustice for All
received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator
Metacritic
.
[9]
Jon M. Gibson of
GameSpy
and Frank Provo of
GameSpot
regarded the title as a formulaic brawler that accomplished nothing unique to set it apart from other entries in its genre,
[1]
[11]
and the campaign length was deemed short,
[1]
[2]
[5]
with Code Cowboy of
GameZone
remarking that he had "finished faster than any game [he had] played in years".
[3]
Provo, along with Code Cowboy and Brett Alan Weiss of
AllGame
, wrote that the game would be enjoyable to young fans of the TV series,
[1]
[3]
[5]
but Gibson warned that its abundance of "run-of-the-mill bullet-points" would discourage even die-hard fans,
[11]
and Craig Harris of
IGN
concluded that the game design's lack of refinement betrayed the potential granted by the concept of controlling a group of superheroes.
[2]
Andrew Reiner of
Game Informer
was disappointed by the game's tedious challenges and unambitious design, dismissing it as "another poorly executed side-scrolling brawler" that was "monotonous as it is mindless".
[10]
Though the reviewers of
Nintendo Power
considered the controls solid,
[12]
Harris and Weiss criticized the
collision detection
as overly strict, with Harris elaborating that the characters cannot perform any corrective action in the middle of an animation.
[2]
[5]
The combat was deemed basic and shallow, with the enemies and bosses being said to not require any strategy beyond using basic melee attacks.
[2]
[3]
[5]
[11]
Gibson added that the low variety of enemies amplified their redundancy and predictability.
[11]
Provo was pleased by the amount of abilities, but said that the level design did not create much opportunities to utilize them.
[1]
Code Cowboy said the ease of combat rendered the special abilities unnecessary, a sentiment shared by Weiss.
[3]
[5]
Code Cowboy and Weiss were disappointed by the inability to select the two characters to control for each level,
[3]
[5]
and Harris and Weiss said the game could have been comparable to
The Lost Vikings
had the cooperation between characters been better implemented and the level design more inspired and imaginative.
[2]
[5]
Some complained of ill-placed hazards such as falling stalactites and spike pits, which Weiss observed were exacerbated by the Game Boy Advance's small screen.
[2]
[5]
[11]
Gibson and Harris got the impression that the game's production was rushed to hastily capitalize on the TV series' popularity,
[2]
[11]
and Weiss concurred that the game could have used more development time to refine the level design and
artificial intelligence
.
[5]
While Weiss, Code Cowboy, and the
Nintendo Power
reviewers were satisfied by the character models and animation,
[3]
[5]
[12]
Gibson and Harris commented that the game's use of 3D models instead of hand-drawn sprites resulted in a loss of resemblance to the characters' animated series counterparts. Their sentiment extended to the animations, which they described as rigid and clunky, and Gibson deemed the characters' lack of visual personality "catastrophic".
[2]
[11]
Provo remarked that the art style's faithfulness to the cartoon series translated into more simplistic assets than those of other Game Boy Advance titles, and added that the lack of interesting or identifiable enemy designs exemplified the game's "cookie-cutter" feeling.
[1]
Code Cowboy was impressed by the level of detail for the Game Boy Advance, though he noted some issues with perspective and dimension; namely, he experienced difficulty determining which buildings could be entered, and saw no clear distinction between background and foreground elements.
[3]
Weiss and Harris said the background art was uneven, with Weiss describing some as nicely detailed and others as repetitive and uninspired. Harris also spotted seams in the backgrounds, which he said resembled an "amateur wallpapering job".
[2]
[5]
Gibson criticized the environments as sloppy, and cited the tiled backgrounds as evidence of a tight production deadline and a cause of navigational confusion by making several rooms look identical.
[11]
The lack of animation in the cutscenes was a source of disappointment from Weiss and Gibson,
[5]
[11]
though Code Cowboy was pleased that the characters' television likenesses were captured.
[3]
Gibson criticized their execution as "truly lame"; although he considered the TV series' tone and character personalities to be properly represented, he dismissed the lines of dialogue as "graphically inept and emotionally defunct", and suggested that full-screen images by Warner Bros. Animation's artists with limited
pan and scan
motions would have sufficed.
[11]
Weiss and Code Cowboy complimented the audio, though Weiss felt the Game Boy Advance's small speaker size resulted in a slightly rough and scratchy quality. The two noted a lack of variety in the sound effects, observing that the characters' weapons and powers sounded identical.
[3]
[5]
Provo regarded the audio as indistinct and uninteresting, elaborating that while the music fit the game's superhero theme with some inspiring tracks, he identified no tracks unique to the
Justice League
franchise.
[1]
Harris described the music composition as "extremely random", likening the effect to "someone just jamming on a
Casio keyboard
".
[2]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Provo, Frank (December 4, 2002).
"
Justice League: Injustice for All
Review"
.
GameSpot
.
CNET Networks
. Archived from
the original
on December 6, 2002
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Harris, Craig (December 11, 2002).
"Game Boy:
Justice League: Injustice for All
"
.
IGN
. Archived from
the original
on October 7, 2003
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Code Cowboy (December 10, 2002).
"
Justice League: Injustice for All
Review ? Game Boy Advance Game"
.
GameZone
. Archived from
the original
on December 25, 2002
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Goldstein, Hilary (August 2, 2002).
"Game Boy:
Justice League
"
.
IGN
. Archived from
the original
on August 10, 2004
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
Weiss, Brett Alan.
"
Justice League: Injustice for All
- Review"
.
AllGame
.
All Media Network
. Archived from
the original
on November 15, 2014
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Game Boy: Midway Acquires Justice League Rights"
.
IGN
. April 29, 2002. Archived from
the original
on April 29, 2004
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
Saffire (November 18, 2002).
Justice League: Injustice for All
(Game Boy Advance). Midway Games. Level/area: Credits.
- ^
Varanini, Giancarlo (November 15, 2002).
"Midway Ships
Justice League GBA
"
.
GameSpot
.
CNET Networks
. Archived from
the original
on December 16, 2002
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"
Justice League: Injustice for All
for Game Boy Advance Reviews"
.
Metacritic
.
CBS Interactive
.
Archived
from the original on June 12, 2011
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Reiner, Andrew (February 2003). "Game Boy Advance Quickies:
Justice League: Injustice for All
".
Game Informer
. No. 118.
GameStop
. p. 110.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Gibson, John M. (February 17, 2003).
"
Justice League: Injustice for All
(GBA)"
.
GameSpy
. Archived from
the original
on April 3, 2003
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Averill, Alan; Shepperd, Christopher; Sinfield, George; Stein, Jessica Joffe; Grimm, Steven (February 2003).
"Now Playing:
Justice League: Injustice for All
"
.
Nintendo Power
. No. 165. p. 158.
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]
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