Earth Protector of Ben Fighting

Great boss fights, variety of aliens to play and beat up with Ben.

Ben's dealing instead with upwards of 20 different personalities and alternate alien forms in the cartoon show, and it's kind of a mess to try to keep track of them all. The titular numeral refers to his original set of 10 transformations the Omnitrix on his arm, when activated, allowed him to assume the shape, abilities and psychological mentality of any of 10 different alien species. But as the series has progressed, he's gained more and more accessible alien forms to call upon, with new ones added with regular frequency

That's good for whatever action figure company has the Ben Fighting license, but daunting for a game designer to tackle so, wisely, this first Ben Fighting game chooses to focus on only a subset of Ben's best transformations. You'll find five altogether, in addition to Ben's normal human form. There's Heatblast, a pyrotechnic alien with the power to control fire and float for a short time. There's Fourarms, the heavy-hitting barbarian who will be your best option in major brawls with bunches of baddies.

There's Cannonbolt, who looks like a yeti but rolls up like an armadillo, and Wildvine, the sentient plant monster who plays a bit like the Bionic Commando, and, finally, XLR8, the speedster who's by far the fastest and most mobile of them all. It's a good group, and does a nice job representing the diversity of Ben's abilities it's even up to date, as Cannonbolt and Wildvine are some of Ben's newer forms, while the other three were part of the original 10 set.

The game plays out as a side-scrolling action/platformer, with a brawling component introduced when enemies arrive on the scene. And it's an immediately satisfying balance the touch screen displays an ever-present graphic of Ben's Omnitrix wristwatch, and you can spin the ring on it with your thumb to select any of Ben's different forms, at any time, and spontaneously morph into whichever form you think is best for the current situation. If you've got a long jump to clear, pick Heatblast his floating firesled will gain you the extra distance. If you need to climb a sheer vertical wall, swap to Fourarms his four massive hands have the strength to hold on where the other aliens can't. It's really quite a bit of fun to just watch Ben change shapes, back and forth, to whatever alien you want, whenever you want.

Well, it's not really whenever you want. Fans of the show are sure to know that the Omnitrix is notorious for failing Ben when he needs it most, and here in Earth Protector of Ben Fighting it will often run out of energy at inopportune times as well then forcibly shifting him back into his standard human shape. Collectible orbs of energy keep it powered up and active, but you still have to keep a careful eye on it. If you try to swap too quickly in the middle of an extended battle, for example, you might find yourself stranded for several seconds as human Ben while the watch reboots itself with a fresh power charge.