Ben 10

I went in expecting a disposable licensed cash-grab and came out with a clearer picture: this game knows exactly who it is for, and that audience is not me. Ben 10 (2017) is a compact, linear beat-em-up built around the Omnitrix fantasy - swapping between ten alien forms, each with its own special attack, ultimate move, and a light puzzle-gating role that at least gestures toward variety. Four Arms punches through locked gates, Grey Matter squeezes through tight passages, Wildvine swings between leafy anchor points, XLR8 dashes past speed obstacles. The moment-to-moment transformation loop is genuinely the game's best idea, and for the eight-to-twelve crowd it probably feels as good as controlling a TV episode. The problems show up fast if you are older than the target demographic. Combat bottoms out at three inputs per alien: a standard three-hit string, a special that charges off a meter, and an Ultimate attack that needs a second meter filled. There is a counter prompt lifted from the Batman Arkham series that telegraphs nearly every enemy hit before it lands, making the already-thin combat even easier to coast through. Enemy variety is almost nonexistent - the same wave of mooks respawns across arenas with force-field walls, and you clear the arena to advance, over and over. The upgrade system exists, but the stat bumps feel passive enough that you would barely notice them removed entirely. The structure is three episodes spread across six short levels, with bosses Zombozo, Queen Bee, and the Weatherheads capping each pair. Collectible Sumo Slammer cards hidden in levels add a modest reason to poke around corners. The whole run takes somewhere between one and two hours on a first playthrough, which is the single biggest complaint across player reviews - not just critics. The PC version also has a slightly awkward default keyboard layout using arrow keys instead of WASD, though a controller cleans that right up. On the positive side, the cartoon art style is faithfully reproduced in the cutscenes and character models, the banter between Ben and Gwen lands in the same tone as the reboot show, and the pacing inside each level moves quickly enough that younger players will not stall out. Critics gave it a 54 on OpenCritic, Steam sits at a Mixed 75% positive from around 530 reviews - a gap that tells the story cleanly. The Steam crowd skews toward fans of the IP who are happy to revisit the license; critics measured it against the broader action genre and found it wanting. If you are buying this for a child who watches the current Ben 10 reboot, the short runtime is actually a selling point - pick it up, finish it in an afternoon, move on. If you are an adult fan of the original series hoping for something with the mechanical depth of the older Protector of Earth titles, this will feel like a significant step backwards. Good alien-switching concept, not enough game built around it.

Alex · Scout Team

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