I had never even heard of this game until very recently when I went to play it. I couldn't even remember what it was called. So I went along with no idea what I was going to play, which is often a good way to go since there's no big build up and no big disappointment.
So this PlayStation video game from 1997, based on the Marvel Comics characters of the same name, developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment, was the first Fantastic Four game that allowed you to play as all 4 members of the team, as the previous game only allowed you to play as the Human Torch and The Thing. She-Hulk is a playable character this time round, referencing the time after Secret Wars where she joined the Fantastic Four for a short period of time. Additionally, it does support multiplayer.
The graphics are abysmal, especially for a 1997 PlayStation game. Crash Bandicoot came out a year before this game, and that had way better graphics. The character models are also poor in addition, for example, The Thing looks like a giant turd, and She-Hulk is also taller than everyone else for some reason. But otherwise, the box art is passable, only too bad the game behind is a sight to behold, combined with a horrible menu screen and poor controls. The loading screen, however, has a kart racing mini game which was interesting.
While at least it stays faithful to the source material, there's barely any story. All you do is punch bad guys until you get to Doctor Doom and after you defeat him the game is over. In fact the gameplay is extremely boring, all you do is beat up enemies and move forwards. Other games of the genre had way more interesting things to do. Punching enemies doesn't feel satisfying to do, though. It's actually a Beat-Em-Up with barely any replay value, and I will tell you, releasing a beat-em-up game in the mid-to-late 1990s was an extremely bad idea, as at the time, the genre was practically dead. At least it's not as bad as the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer game, and it's still better than FANT4STIC.
With terrible level design, parts of a level can obstruct where you can go, block helpful power-ups or even cause unnecessary death, for example in level two, there are craters that cause immediate death that you’ll just stumble into and precariously thin bridges that are impossible to judge your position on, also leading to death or a huge chunk of your health taken out. Enemies will also constantly swarm you when you are playing solo, making you feel unsafe.
The character animations are incredibly bad, even when punching, for example She-Hulk's animation is this weird looking punch, and Invisible Woman's animation is generic and sexist whenever she blocks herself she looks like she's dancing. The AI player characters are also extremely poor, as they will constantly waste ammo, take damage really fast and run into walls.
The music feels like it was taken from a completely different game, and doesn't fit the game at all. Combine this with the awful voices for the characters and the sound effects, which are really annoying, and the audio content makes you want to cover your ears completely while playing.
What else can I say about this game except that it can be good for laughs, as the bad animations and ugly character models can give you a good laugh. Even the 2005 video game adaptation is a massive improvement, with better graphics, better gameplay, better soundtrack and being longer. Otherwise, give it a miss. You'll be glad you did.