| Justice League Heroes | |
|---|---|
 North American Xbox cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Snowblind Studios Sensory Sweep Studios(DS) |
| Publisher(s) | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment |
| Engine | Snowblind |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2,Xbox,PlayStation Portable,Nintendo DS |
| Release | DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox PlayStation Portable |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,multiplayer |
Justice League Heroes is a 2006 console video game for thePlayStation 2 andXbox platforms. It was developed bySnowblind Studios, published byWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in conjunction withDC Comics and was distributed in Europe byEidos Interactive. Based on the long-running comic book seriesJustice League, it was written by comic book writerDwayne McDuffie.[7] It uses theSnowblind Studios game engine.[8]
Three handheldJustice League Heroes games were released at the same time for theGame Boy Advance,Nintendo DS andPlayStation 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 theFlash, with its events occurring concurrently to the main game.
The game features most of the best known superheroes from theDC Universe, includingSuperman,Batman, andWonder 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 fromMidway Games that was canceled in 2004 but, according toWarner Bros., this game is unrelated to the current project.[9]
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Superman andBatman foil aS.T.A.R. Labs ambush by robots controlled byBrainiac. However, they discover that the encounter was a diversion to enable the theft ofKryptonian DNA samples and a meteorite. Meanwhile,Zatanna andMartian Manhunter battleQueen Bee and her drones. After Metropolis has been saved, the League responds to attemptednuclear missile hijackings by theKey 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 theWhite Martians. Brainiac has also freedGorilla 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 withSolovar to stop Grodd. Doomsday takes control of the Watchtower while Brainiac steals aMother 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 inSiberia.
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.
^a "Striker" in the Game Boy Advance version
^b "Striker" in the Nintendo DS version
^c Appears as a non-player character in the Game Boy Advance version
^d Appears as a non-player character in the Nintendo DS version
^e Exclusive to the PSP version
^f Does not appear in the Nintendo DS version
^g Exclusive to the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions
^h Exclusive to the PSP, PS2 and Xbox versions
^i 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.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2010) |
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PS2: 68/100[10] XBOX: 68/100[11] PSP: 72/100[12] DS: 43/100[13] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| GameSpot | 7.6/10 (PSP)[14] |
| IGN | 6.4/10 (PS2)[15] |
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.[16][15][17]The game was unfavorably compared to the similar multiplayer Marvel gamesX-Men Legends andMarvel: Ultimate Alliance, which allow the player to choose any character on any level, whileJustice League Heroes contains several levels where the choice was taken away.
The DS version was not well received,[18] withNintendo Power giving it a 3.5,GameSpot a 5/10[19] andIGN a 4.4.[20] The GBA version received generally positive critical response.[21]