First of all, I'm a Marvel guy. Always have been, always will be. But, there are some DC characters that we all know and love. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash are all classic DC supers. Can they help bring "Justice" to this DC video game? How will it stack up against Marvel's X-Men series? I decided to take a look.

Right off the bat, I was very disappointed with the powers of the "League". Superman got knocked out on the very first mission by a robot. This was not a boss robot or even Brainiac himself. This was some peon, run of the mill, ordinary, rank and file robot. Never happen. We are talking about Superman here.

So Supes is lame. Just how lame? Faster than a speeding bullet? Nope. More powerful than a locomotive? Nope. Able to leap tall building? Well, not really. He can fly (more like float) but that is where the similarity ends. Granted, the game is designed to build a character's powers, but it starts out lame.

Now, I'm giving this game the benefit of the doubt and I'm sure it will get better. Despite the fact that Superman isn't quite Super, I'm going to carry on. Batman does have a cool cape glide, but he is also a disappointment. The best thing he can do is call in a swarm of bats. Zzzzzzzz.

Second mission - J'onn and Zatanna. A little better, but not much. Zatanna turning enemies into rabbits is kinda fun... the first few times. J'onn gets old quick too. Powers are too weak and too few to start off, so this ends up being a fist fighting beat 'em up game. Not so much what I'm looking for when it comes to superhero games. Maybe I just have not found a favorite yet.

On to three. Green Lantern and Flash. Surely Flash will be some fun. I mean, the fastest man alive. He should be able to zip right through. Well, he is fast....... at dying. No one dies faster than he does. The Green Lantern does have some pretty powers, but all for show. None for go.

At this point I'm thinking, "This game's a turd." I can't believe DC let this go out. The game looks absolutely gorgeous but the game play totally bites. The fighting is clumsy. The powers are weak. The characters are less than the legends they should be. Maybe I am biased? I've got to give it some more time.

Then I got a shot at Wonder Woman and the worm began to turn. Finally, some super powers in the form of the golden lasso. Nice to lasso an enemy from 20 feet away and yank them in for a punch. Or throw a restaining lasso on one while smacking around the guy next to him. Even lasso and guy and spin him around crashing into everthing. Wonder Woman restored my hope in this title, for the moment.

I will admit, once you level up and slot some boosts, the powers do begin to grow. However, so do the strength of your opponents, so you don't really see much change. I just expected a little bit more from the get go, especially with Superman and Batman. Flash is fun to play, but he is very weak in a fight. They say speed kills but I'm not so sure they were talking about Flash.

Then suddenly hit me why I was so disappointed. I'd played this game before. It was Baldurs Gate and X-Men Legends when I played it, but it is close to both those games. Not quite as fun as either of them seperately, so it was double the disappointment when they were combined.

Justice League Heroes does no justice to the DC Universe. The fighting is repetitive, clumsy and at times, down right boring. The lack of choices also causes this game to suffer. Most mission teams are predetermined. There are some unlockable heroes that may change up the gameplay (Aquaman, Huntress, Green Arrow and Hawkgirl) and some alternate costumes that may also change things (we'll see when we get them).

But so far, this game has been a huge disappointment for me. I've always liked the superhero genres. I collected comic books for over 20 years. Granted, I may lean towards Marvel comics but I give DC props when it comes to their big guns. Unfortunately, this game is about 3 years too late. With X-Men Legends already doing it better the first time, X-Men Legends II improving upon that and the newly released Marvel Ultimate Alliance looking to top even the Legends titles, Justice League Heroes just doesn't stack up.

For a first effort, it is okay but it will need some serious work to spawn a worthy sequel. I still have hope that something will drastically change (in the game and in my opinion) but so far it doesn't look so good. I'll reserve final judgement until I've completed the game. As lame as this game has started, that in itself may require a superheroic effort on my part.