Catwoman Review

Superhero games have suffered tremendously on video game consoles and handhelds. Batman, Superman, and now, Catwoman. What’s in common with these superheroes, other than that they are, well, superheroes? Easy, all of their games are quite simply horrible, not worthy of even a trash can.

Your name is Patience Phillips. You must deliver designs to a factory, a factory owned by the company that employs you. You over-hear a top-secret meeting and are chased. You will eventually be drowned out of a pipe that you hide in and obviously die. Your cat revives you as none other than Catwoman.

The premise of the game is to do Catwoman-like moves. The emphasis is on acrobatics more than fighting, as anyone could easily tell by the lack of a comprehensive fighting system.

The right analog stick is used to hit/kick enemies, and the left analog stick is used to move Catwoman. The camera is in a fixed position all the time, but you have the option to look around in first-person by pressing R2. Here you can follow your cat’s scent, which shows you the way around a level.

Catwoman carries here signature whip. The whip is used to grab items from enemies, throw enemies off ledges, and even swing. If it wasn’t for the horrible control and camera angles, this might work better. The whip isn’t affective in combat situations, so you’ll be finding yourself kicking people into trash cans more than whipping them silly.

Catwoman is capable of doing things that you’d expect her to do. She can launch up walls, jump from wall to wall, grab on to mesh, and even swing from various poles. Again, this game’s more about pure adventuring than combat. Unfortunately, you’ll find yourself falling off of buildings quite often, when you’re either lost or you miss your destination due to a miscalculation of distance. This artificial length is what adds hours to what would have otherwise been a four hour game.

I was impressed when I first gave this game a spin. The combat was always an under-performer, and reminded me of Sony’s Jet Li game, Rise to Honor. The acrobatic parts of the game make it feel like the Catwoman name was more than just a way to sell a copy, but in fact the developers put time creating a video game form of the Catwoman character. Unfortunately, the not-so-solid controls, camera angles, A.I., and level design are all reasons why I can’t give this game high remarks.