The Phantom

Years before Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, Batman lost his parents and Deadpool broke the fourth wall, there was The Phantom, the first masked comic book hero. You would think that with that kind of bragging right, The Phantom would be all over the place, especially in an era where comic book characters are an easy way to print money. And yet, outside of the cheesy 1990s film starring Billy Zane and a short-lived cartoon that takes the character to the year 2040, nobody seems interested in going back to Bangalla. That’s a shame, because there’s more than enough room in the world for a globe-trotting hero who goes on a bunch of swashbuckling adventures. And to prove that, first-time developer Art of Play has turned the long-running series into a fun throwback beat ‘em up. It’s like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, only with more boat chases and elephant stampedes. Find out how this comic book brawler stacks up when I review The Phantom.

After watching so many comic book movies lately where the fate of the entire world rests in the hands of a masked hero, it’s refreshing that the stakes in The Phantom are relatively low. Not for the Phantom, of course, because this particular adventure revolves around his son, Kip, being kidnapped by the dastardly Dogai Singh. Now it’s up to either the titular hero or his wife, Diana, to travel to span the globe in search of clues to Kip’s whereabouts.

Equipped with a gun, an animal helper and some incredible fighting moves, The Phantom dons his iconic purple outfit and punches and kicks the bad guys until they cough up the information. This is, for better or worse, a classic side-scrolling beat ‘em up. You know, the type where you walk from left to right mashing the attack buttons in order to knock out photocopied enemies that like to hide off screen. It’s the kind of brawler that Capcom or Sega would have released in the late 1980s or early 90s, back before one-on-one fighting games were all the rage.

As a brawler, The Phantom has a little more depth than you might expect. For one thing, it has two attack buttons, which allows for some very basic combos and variety. There are also a number of rushing, charge and counter moves, as well as the ability to just pull out a gun and shoot the enemies from afar. And did I mention that both the Phantom and Diana have their own animals they can unleash on unsuspecting bad guys? Kit calls in Devil, his trusty wolf, while Diana lets a hawk swoop in and take some cheap shots at the enemies.

The two concerned parents make their way to five different countries, ranging from the jungles of the fictional African country Bangalla to rooftops of India to the mob-filled streets of New York. Each country is split up into several different stages, giving the developers the freedom to show off completely different spots in each country. For example, when the Phantom arrives in Sweden, the first thing he needs to do is fight on top of a moving train during a snow storm. The weather has cleared up when we get to our second stop in Sweden, the docks, where the only storm is coming from your fists hitting comic book villains.

The third and final stage in each country is the boss fight, which sees our hero jump on some sort of vehicle and chase down a number of comic book baddies. This starts out as an exciting race with our heroes chasing down an airplane with a horse. You’ll also hop on motorcycles, boats and cars in future stages, usually with the conceit of trying to shoot bombs and grenades out of the hands of the boss. While a little repetitive, these chase scenes go a long way to break up the usual beat ‘em up action.

The truth is, you’ve likely made up your mind about this style of brawler a long time ago, and The Phantom is not going to change your mind. It suffers from all of the same problems that plagued the older games, which you’ll either find annoying or endearing, depending on how much you like this genre. It’s probably pointless to complain about enemies hiding off screen or getting cheap hits due to swarming our hero from all sides. That said, I did find the repeating enemies to be a bit jarring. Yes, this is a hallmark of beat ‘em up games, but it feels especially egregious here. Because there are only a handful of bad guys, you’ll routinely get a screen full of the same enemies acting the exact same way. Some palette swaps would have gone a long way, but as it is, it feels like you’re fighting the same five enemies in every single stage. That’s disappointing.

There are a few other problems that I wouldn’t necessarily blame on the genre, such as the somewhat sluggish control. Yes, The Phantom does have a few more moves and abilities than a game like Final Fight, but it’s also a lot stiffer and not as easy to control. This is especially bad when you’re trying to turn around fast enough to counter enemies sneaking up behind the hero. Even things like pulling out your gun and putting it away can sometimes be a pain. The characters never move as fast or fluid as they need to, leaving you vulnerable at the worst possible times.

It doesn’t help that the game is buggy. While it never crashed on me, I did run into a few sections where the enemies got stuck in the level and wouldn’t let me proceed. The Swedish train level is especially bad, as enemies can get stuck on top of one car with no way to move forward. This leaves them just out of reach for the player, so you might need to restart the entire stage if you don’t have enough bullets. There are other times where our hero will freeze or even walk around without any arms. None of these issues are game-breaking, but they are annoying.

On a more positive note, the visuals are fantastic. If there’s one thing Art of Play gets right, it’s the comic book style. Everything from the characters to the backgrounds look like they were pulled straight out of the pages of those classic comics. They are hand-drawn and beautifully rendered. There are a lot of nice touches, as well a fun nods to longtime fans of the series. I especially like the way the cinemas are presented and how certain combos and gameplay moments will trigger pop-up comic panels. Although the animation is a little stiff, this is overall a very sharp-looking game.

Despite being a bit clunky at times, I was ultimately won over by The Phantom because it gets the fundamentals right. There’s enough depth to keep the action exciting, a lot of locations to fight through and plenty of incentive to play through the story multiple times. Best of all, the chase sequences are genuinely fun and exciting, offering a nice reprieve from the punching and kicking. While his adventures may be rooted in the past, this game proves that The Phantom is not too old to star in his own beat ‘em up. Not bad for a comic hero pushing 90.