The Phantom Review: An Experiment in Frustration

Presenting Gameffine’s The Phantom Review

Lee Falk’s The Phantom has been a huge childhood inspiration for me. Even before learning to read, I was glued to newspaper strips featuring The Ghost Who Walks and the translated comics published on the weekly kids magazine, ‘Balarama‘. My affinity towards the first costumed superhero inspired me to draw my first comic book at age 6. Heck, I even loved the goofy Billy Zane Phantom movie. Thus, you can bet your purple tights that I would be down for Art of Play’s beat ’em up starring the “ghost who walks.” But alas, I was seriously nostalgia-bated into playing something that just isn’t fun. The Phantom proved to be nothing more than an experiment in frustration. Here’s me, presenting Gameffine’s The Phantom review with a heavy heart.

Back in Purple

The Phantom seemed like a really cool idea on paper. You have one of the most iconic yet often forgotten OG superhero who was so popular one time that I’m surprised LJN didn’t make a crappy video game adaptation. Aside from the obscure Phantom 2040 game for the SNES and Genesis, The Phantom didn’t get much love from the industry. This is where Art of Play comes into the picture.

Described as an arcade-style beat-em-up for PC and consoles, The Phantom sees the titular character and his partner Diana take on his archnemesis, the Singh Brotherhood. As one would expect, the story is just there to make the action happen. According to the game’s Steam page, the events of the game are canon and it features “full-screen cut scenes and captivating in-game visuals”. I can vouch for the latter but the so-called “full-screen cut scenes” are nothing more than static single-page comic book panels that pop up before and after a level. The story sees The Phantom and Diana go on a globe-trotting adventure spanning Africa, India, Switzerland, Australia, and New York in search of their kidnapped son. It’s a very basic but fitting plot, featuring fitting voice acting and gorgeous comic book art.

Speaking of art, it’s perhaps one of the few saving graces of The Phantom. Each level of the game looks straight out of a comic book. However, the same cannot be said for the animations. They are very basic and crude to a degree, often invoking the feeling of playing around with paper cuttings of comic book panels. The music is pretty good as well, even though the tracks get looped far too much during gameplay. But this is more a combat design issue rather than a music one.

A Can of Worms

Now I come to the painful part- the actual gameplay. All the production value in the world doesn’t matter much if the gameplay isn’t fun. Unfortunately, this is where The Phantom stumbles and falls hard. I do not expect every Beat ’em up to be as good as Streets of Rage 4. But if your game’s mechanics aren’t as solid as Streets of Rage 2, a game that came out 32 years ago, then there’s just no defending it. What started as a basic but enjoyable arcade game soon turned into a wild mess of bugs and frustration. The Phantom contains all the worst aspects of an 8-bit Beat ’em up while omitting all the improvements made in the genre in the last 30 years.

Where do I even start? The gameplay is rather basic, featuring linear side-scrolling levels where you go from one side to the next (and often making a return trip) and usually fighting a boss at the end of a stage. But it’s not its basic nature but rather its undercooked mechanics that let the game down. The controls for both Phantom and Diana are very clunky, the attacks underpowered, enemies are bullet sponges, and the hitboxes are widely inaccurate. There is very little in the way of enemy variety and you’ll often find yourself chipping away the HP of the same three enemy types over and over again. The playable characters are very limited in terms of combos, so it’s more efficient to spam the basic kick that has more DPS than Phantom’s ultimate ability (bruh). Even something as simple as defeating a single enemy takes way too long. In fact, that’s the most apt description for the game. By the time I was done with my 5 hour playthrough, it felt like an eternity had passed, and I’ve grown into a bitter old man.

Aside from the basic combos and ultimates, the Phantom and Diana have two more skills at their disposal. Phantom can call on their trusty pet wolf and eagle to assist in combat. However, you’re better off not using this, as the ability rarely works and you’ll often see Devil and hawk just casually run past enemies. Moreover, the heroic duo can pull out their guns to mow down enemies (but the devs discourage this due to licensor demand). While the guns are made more impactful through updates, it’s still a chore since you have to press a separate button, wait for them to pull out their guns, and shoot, all while dodging cheap shots from enemies. It’d have been way better if the gun attacks were instant and had their dedicated buttons. It also sucks that they cannot be comboed with regular attacks.

Just Why?

Arcade action games usually include levels with vehicular combat to spice up the gameplay and provide a change of pace. There are a few of these in The Phantom as well. However, instead of being high-octane chase sequences, these end up being the worst levels in the game. In all these sections, Phantom and Diana ride on a horse, motorcycle, boat, etc, and chase the enemies while evading their projectiles. These go on for way too long and are extremely repetitive. If you had thought that The Phantom giving chase to a bunch of pirates on a 350cc Royal Enfield through the dusty streets of pre-independence India was cool, then this game proves that it’s not. But by far, the worst level in the game has to be the one where the boat section. It’s filled to the brim with frustration and badly designed traps, even giving the player wrong threat indicators and unresponsive AI, which led me to play the level for more than five times. I’d go so far to say that it’s the single worst level I’ve ever played in a Beat ’em up.

Save systems are a boon. Gone are the days when you’re supposed to brute force your way through games in a single session. But it looks like the devs behind The Phantom didn’t hear the news. I don’t know if it’s a bug or not, but there is a big issue with the game’s save system. The game has a stage saving system, but it does not work as it should. If you were to quit the session after clearing a stage, then tough luck, the game will just make you replay the last level of the previous stage the next time you come back to it. Just, why? Moreover, despite receiving numerous bug fixes throughout the review period, The Phantom is still quite buggy. Phantom and Diana getting stuck on invisible barriers, enemy AI committing sepuku, audio effects ceasing to work, are all but a few bugs I’ve been running into. There is also an online co-op mode and Arcade mode, but these issues persist even there.

Real Talk

The Phantom is nothing short of an experiment in frustration. What starts as a basic Beat ’em up devolves into a barely functional mess. The excellent art design and cool music tracks aren’t enough to warrant a purchase, even for the most hardcore fan of the man who cannot die. I’m glad I got a haircut before attempting The Phantom review. Otherwise, I’d have pulled most of it out by now.

FINAL SCORE: 35/100