Ben 10 Alien Force brings us back to Ben's world with a whole new set of aliens to change into.

It's hard to knock a PS2 game for looking like a PS2 game, especially considering how much of an install base the older system still has over the PS3. So, that being said, this game feels like it comes from the generation it does. There isn't a whole lot of detail in the environments and characters, but what is there is good. Both enemies and heroes (Ben, Gwen and Kevin) all look like the TV series counterparts, while the levels themselves have the appropriate feel to them. There are also a lot of cinematic cutscenes throughout the game (both between levels and one or two within the levels), and those look really good.

Sound is pretty solid as well. The music feels like it came from the show, and I am pretty convinced that the series' voice actors were brought into the game. If not, then the people used to impersonate Ben, Gwen and Kevin do a pretty good job of it.

Unfortunately, it's in the gameplay where a lot of odd decisions collide to make Ben 10 Alien Force a less than mediocre experience. For those unfamiliar with the Alien Force series, this show is the followup to Cartoon Network's hit original series Ben 10. In that original series, young Ben found a strange watch that attached itself to his arm and allowed him to transform into 10 different aliens in order to fight bad guys. Now, Alien Force takes place a few years later where Ben, his cousin Gwen and their once arch enemy Kevin (formerly known as Kevin Eleven) are all teens and Ben's strange watch has given him a whole new set of aliens to transform into. This is good, because there is a new threat to Earth, a race of alien hybrids that are bent on turning down the temperature... a whole lot.

So yes, the game has a good premise to draw from, and quite frankly all the right pieces are there. With Ben's Omnitrix, you can transform into five of the different aliens (though each one has to be unlocked). When you play as Gwen, you get to use her magical abilities, and Kevin's ability to absorb materials around him and use it as a type of shield also shows up. But the issues I found with the game involved the developer's choices when dealing with multiplayer, level flow, what happens when characters die and other really low level concepts.

My biggest gripe is probably the game's ability to let a second player pop in and pop out at will. This is typically good and allows for more fun gameplay, but what really struck me as odd is the second character is always the same as the first (if the level calls for Ben, both players will be Ben, if it's for Kevin, both are Kevin). So, not only does this make it confusing as to which character is yours (mine always looks happy since I have him jumping around randomly so I can keep track), but it just seems pointless. Now, I can understand that the levels are much geared towards specific heroes, but if you are going to have multiplayer like this, then the levels need to be designed with a bit more flexibility, or just don't do it. It really feels like this feature was thrown in late in the development cycle by someone based on a focus test or something.

After that, there is the game's liberal use of barriers and invisible walls to keep you from going backwards in the level. This is most obvious in the game's very first level which takes place on a pier. As you run along the pier, invisible walls get thrown up behind you to keep you from going back towards the beginning. The reason for this is completely lost on me. The only thing I can figure is that it helps lock you into screen-sized areas for the waves of enemies that spawn. It just seems really cheap and aggravating (especially when some of the pickups that came from an object you destroyed fall on the other side of the wall).

This last complaint really is more of a gripe, but again, it is something that is seen often enough to cause problems. In most games of this style, when you die, you re-spawn somewhere on the screen (either where you died, or if you fell off a cliff, on the edge of that cliff). Here though, every time you are killed, a screen comes up asking if you want to continue. After a tap of the (X) button, you re-spawn. Now, this little bit is annoying enough on its own, but when you realize that this screen doesn't have any options on it, it only lets you continue, it feels worse. If there were other options like Exit or Restart Level, then maybe ... maybe, this would be more acceptable. But considering the amount of times I died (particularly on jumping puzzles), this got really annoying really fast. Oh, and to make matters worse, the multiplayer jump in/jump out feature is also affected by this, when you have two players on the screen and one of them dies. Instead of re-spawning them, the game simply pops the character out, so the player has to once again hit (Start) to get into the game. Like I said, while the levels themselves are okay, the general gameplay has so many strange holes in it that it is hard to deal with.

Ben 10 Alien Force has a couple of factors that try and keep the game from getting too easy. For one, you can't just stay in an alien form constantly. Like the show, your Omnitrix has a time limit, which is represented as a constantly draining meter. Some of the pickups you find add some juice to this meter, so given enough destructibles, you could theoretically keep yourself transformed indefinitely. However, those pickups are far more rare after the first level, so that really doesn't happen too often.

The other aspect that seemed to really hinder quickly running through the game was the fact that the little bit of platformer-styled jumping you will have to do is tough to manage with the game's locked camera angles. One part early in the game has Ben jumping from pillar to pillar around an island. Because of the camera angle, it gets really hard to line up your jumps, and one failed landing, you die (see the aforementioned continue screen) and have to start the jumps over again. Really annoying.

Besides that though, nothing really keeps you from wailing through the game's story in an afternoon. The levels are fairly long and involved, each one taking 20 to 30 minutes a piece to finish. Unfortunately, there are only 8 levels to go through, so even with the lengthy playtime per level, the game isn't all that long. If you really want to get all the collectibles though, you will have to replay levels when you gain access to aliens from later in the game since some are only reachable in those forms.

Ben 10 Alien Force is a pretty basic game. Pretty much anyone who has played an action game of this nature should be able to pick it up and play. The only thing that really stands out here is activating the Omnitrix. You cycle between your unlocked aliens with the D-pad, and turn into that alien with the (R1) button. Similarly, when controlling Kevin, you use the (R1) button to touch specific materials (steel, wood and stone) in order to take on its characteristics.

Another added mechanic is the ability to upgrade the combos your aliens can use by gaining experience points. This allows you to make your favorite aliens really powerful. This was also interesting because without skills being leveled up (only attacks), there aren't any kind of puzzles that only certain aliens can use (except for those that involve gliding). So your aliens can get really unbalanced. For instance, I rarely used Swampfire, and used Big Chill and Spidermonkey more times than not. Consequently, those two gained all of their combos early on, while Swampfire rarely got any upgrades. So there isn't really any incentive to upgrade your characters in a well-rounded fashion; that isn't good or bad, just an observation.

While Ben 10 Alien Force does seem to offer a good bit of fanfare for those who enjoy the TV series, the many little issues really keep the game from being fun. It's hard to recommend this game to anyone outside of the most rabid fan, and even those should just rent it since they will either give up or beat it before the rental period is up.