Justice League Heroes

Title	Justice League Heroes
Image
Caption	North American Xbox cover art
Developer	Snowblind Studios Sensory Sweep Studios (DS)
Publisher	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Engine	Snowblind
Released	DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox PlayStation Portable
Genre	Action role-playing
Modes	Single-player, multiplayer
Platforms	PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS

Justice League Heroes is a 2006 console video game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms. It was developed by Snowblind Studios, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in conjunction with DC Comics and was distributed in Europe by Eidos Interactive. Based on the long-running comic book series Justice League, it was written by comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie. It uses the Snowblind Studios game engine.

Three handheld Justice League Heroes games were released at the same time for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The Nintendo DS game shares a similar visual style and gameplay mechanics to the console game and serves as a prequel to its story. Justice League Heroes: The Flash focuses on the Flash, with its events occurring concurrently to the main game.

Gameplay

The game features most of the best known superheroes from the DC Universe, including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman among others. Each level consists of two members of the Justice League battling a variety of villains and their henchmen. When the game is being played by a single player, the player can freely switch between playing as either of the two Justice League members at any time. In a two player game, the players can only switch which characters they control by mutual consent. There was another Justice League game in development from Midway Games that was canceled in 2004 but, according to Warner Bros., this game is unrelated to the current project.

Upon starting a new game, the player has immediate access to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, and Zatanna, but more characters and costumes can be unlocked as the game progresses. These unlockable characters can only be used on levels in which the players can choose which characters to take whereas the costumes can be used at any time.

The game has three initial difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard, and two unlockable difficulties: Elite and Superhero. In each successive difficulty level, enemies do more damage and have more health.

Plot

Superman and Batman foil a S.T.A.R. Labs ambush by robots controlled by Brainiac. However, they discover that the encounter was a diversion to enable the theft of Kryptonian DNA samples and a meteorite. Meanwhile, Zatanna and Martian Manhunter battle Queen Bee and her drones. After Metropolis has been saved, the League responds to attempted nuclear missile hijackings by the Key and Killer Frost. Despite the League's efforts, Brainiac causes a worldwide blackout, enabling one missile to launch undetected.

Superman and Martian Manhunter travel to Mars to stop them from escaping, but discover that Brainiac has stolen vital equipment from the White Martians. Brainiac has also freed Gorilla Grodd, who intends to take revenge on his jailers and humanity. While Wonder Woman assists Superman in stopping the White Martian vessels that escaped Mars and Martian Manhunter returns to the Watchtower, the rest of the League works with Solovar to stop Grodd. Doomsday takes control of the Watchtower while Brainiac steals a Mother Box from the League's vaults. Regrouping in an emergency bunker, the League retakes the Watchtower, frees Martian Manhunter, and defeats Doomsday before confronting the real Brainiac in Siberia.

Darkseid appears and disintegrates Brainiac, who he has been manipulating. He banishes the Justice League to another dimension, but they escape and stop him from terraforming Earth. Afterward, the League locks Darkseid's Sensory Matrix Field Generator in their vaults.

Characters

Playable characters

Villains

"Striker" in the Game Boy Advance version

"Striker" in the Nintendo DS version

Appears as a non-player character in the Game Boy Advance version

Appears as a non-player character in the Nintendo DS version

Exclusive to the PSP version

Does not appear in the Nintendo DS version

Exclusive to the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions

Exclusive to the PSP, PS2 and Xbox versions

Does not appear in the Game Boy Advance version

Each of the seven main characters has two unlockable costumes, with Superman and Wonder Woman having three. These alternative costumes alter the character's stats by small amounts and recreate classic or alternative costumes from the character's history.

Reception

The PS2, Xbox and PSP versions received "mixed or average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

The PlayStation Portable version was praised for customization and co-op game play. It also received better reviews by both fans and critics than the console versions.

The game was unfavorably compared to the similar multiplayer Marvel games X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which allow the player to choose any character on any level, while Justice League Heroes contains several levels where the choice was taken away.

The DS version was not well received, with Nintendo Power giving it a 3.5, GameSpot a 5/10 and IGN a 4.4.

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