I decided to play Ben 10 Power Trip as I watched the show as a child and thought it might bring back the joy of my youth. The first thing I noticed upon booting up the game is that it’s really ugly, the character models and world just look bad. I don’t know if that’s what the show looks like but it’s worse than I remember. Luckily I don’t let graphics bother me too much.

Getting into the plot I found Ben travelling with his Grandpa and sister Gwen. They just sort of stumble upon Hex who uses a crystal to to remove aliens from the Omnitrix. Ben has to get back the aliens and stop Hex’s evil plan. (I assume Hex is an established villain in the show.)

The combat in this game is a bit of a button bashing, melee affair with combos consisting of light and heavy attacks. Occasionally the player will get a critical hit (named Lucky Shot in game) so fairly standard stuff. There is some variety in the enemies; we get huge monsters, normal monsters, ranged enemies, flying enemies and tough ones that can only be damaged from behind. As the adventure continues the player will get upgrades to toughness, damage and luck so Ben will get stronger.

The objectives in the game are simple to follow, being basic platforming, fighting enemies or an almost interesting chase sequence. There are the main missions, but also side missions and passive collection missions. It’s all presented in a clear, understandable way. Alongside this we get doors for Lord Decibel (probably another villain from the show) who makes Ben do a little jumping game that changes the pace a bit.

As for the aliens, they each have their own unique abilities that help with traversal and combat. Heatblast for instance has double-jump and a flamethrower attack. The other aliens available are XLR8, Four Arms, Shock Rock, Diamondhead, Rath, Rush, Hot Shot, Bashmouth, Crystalfist, Quad Smack and Thornblade. (Most of these are new to me, my favourite used to be Grey Matter.)

There were some things about this game that pleasantly surprised me. Power Trip has a small open world with unlockable fast travel. There’s another kid with an Omnitrix so the game has split-screen multiplayer plus one of the aliens can rail grind. The stats menu in the game is great for completionists as it clearly shows the different areas with everything still needed to be done.

The game has hidden collectibles in the form of trinkets and records which is nice as filler content. There’s a character that sells maps to help find the collectibles but her price forced players to collect the coins scattered throughout the game.

Flaws with the game are much fewer than expected, it’s generally well constructed. Ugly graphics aside, the only noticeable problem was that I could walk inside or clip through some objects in the world. I also found it a little boring but it is a children’s game so I’m not the right audience.

Although not recapturing childhood memories, Ben 10 Power Trip is an alright but average game. There is no real problem with it other than being a bit dull, however a modern Ben 10 fan might like it.