These digital reincarnations followed on the successful heels of "Spider Man" the movie and Spider Man the game, both of which were fantastic in their own right. But you just had to know the magic touch would wear out sooner or later, and unfortunately for TDK, the luck dried up just as they released their Aquaman title.

Aquaman puts gamers in the golden boots of King Arthur, the ruler of the submerged city of Atlantis, who is suddenly faced with protecting his kingdom from destruction-minded villains. As any king is wont to do, you will set out to beat the invaders into breaded fillets, protect your merman citizens from harm and do every conceivable manner of heroic deed. Succeed, and Atlanteans will all "breathe" a sigh of relief. Fail, and your citizens will meet an untimely demise faster than you can say "sushi."

The basic gameplay of Aquaman is, for all intents and purposes, an exact clone of Treyarch’s Spider-Man. Rather than swing through the skies of Manhattan, you swim through the "streets" and caverns of Atlantis. Rather than punch through hordes of bad guys with your web attacks in tow, you punch through waves of enemies with the ability to call sharks and dolphins to assist you with a SONAR call (a la Tarzan). But rather than have a blast doing all this, you’ll find that the game simply doesn’t offer enough ingenuity to keep you playing.

The fighting mechanic is pure Spider-Man "knock-off," which basic combinations to begin with and more complicated and powerful combos "learned" as you progress. Given that some of these involve six button presses or more, you can pause the game and review your attacks via a menu option - exactly as you can in Spider-Man. Where fighting as Spidey occasionally involved some keen timing and strategy, though, combat in Aquaman is as much a matter of simple patience as it is a trial of it.

Individual enemies show few signs of intelligence, artificial or otherwise, and even when groups of four to five come in for blood, they seldom attack in groups of more than two. Should you find yourself "surrounded," you can switch targets by pressing up or down on the D-pad, an easy maneuver given the enemies’ limited aggression. And when you find your opening, success involves little more than simple, blind button mashing. Yes, there are combinations, but they’re not necessary to win. Yes, there are special moves, and you can call in marine animals to aid you, but randomly slamming buttons will do as much damage in the long run. There’s even a dodge button at your disposal, should you feel the need to use it, but if you remain aggressive with your button mashing, opponents will seldom find a way to out-maneuver you and will fall victim to your flailing.

In the game’s defense, the developers have included a few levels that switch up the somewhat-tiresome battles in Aquaman. First is the inclusion of timed levels, which make for perhaps the most challenging experiences in the game. They’re challenging not in their design, though, but in their lack of clear objectives. Sure, you know what you’re supposed to accomplish, but the radar works so "generally" in these levels that you’ll fail at least once on each until you figure out just how you’re supposed to defeat it.

The second example of "spiced up" gameplay comes in the guise of four levels in which you pilot a submarine in an attempt to sink the attacking craft. These levels feel similar to Jedi Starfighter, only underwater, with absolutely no radar and with very small battlefields. As a result, while these levels switch up the gameplay, they don’t always make for the liveliest improvements in the game.

The graphics in Aquaman are pure comic book, all the way down to every cutscene done in storyboard format and with no moving parts or voiceovers. The only problem with this treatment for an entire game, though, is that comic books of old were created hastily with the need to meet a press deadline, so sparse environments or redundant characters were taken for granted. With a video game, though, developers have more time to include dense environments, varied character designs and dynamic backgrounds.

A few elements are well implemented in Aquaman, particularly the blur effect for buildings in the distance and King Arthur’s hair, which flows in the deep-sea current. On the whole, though, the graphics are too simple for a next-gen video game, $20 title or not. A good camera and solid framerate are important, but with such a small number of monochromatic moving parts in the game, it’s no wonder these benchmarks were achievable.

Oddly enough, the audio in Aquaman is also pure comic book. That’s a joke, see. There is no audio in a comic book. Nor is there any audio to speak of in this game. As mentioned, the cutscenes are done completely in an audio-free storyboard format, which is entirely appropriate for this game. But during the actual gameplay there’s a complete lack of voicework as well (unlike the great quips in Spider-Man), and there are no real sound effects aside from King Arthur’s call for marine assistance, the swoosh of water when he speeds through the depths or the landing of a punch or kick. In all honesty, you’ll probably hear more sounds flipping through the opening menu than you will while in the game.

With such limited sounds and graphics, not to mention the repetitive gameplay, most gamers will likely not bother to play through Aquaman’s already-abbreviated campaign to unlock Tempest or Black Manta as playable characters. Nor is there any multiplayer component to keep you swimming along for the eight to 10 hours it’ll take to beat the game. Fans of the "Aquaman" comic books may find themselves sticking around just long enough to reminisce about their favorite animated character, but even then, they’ll be reminiscing about how much fun they had with those original tales and wonder what happened in this translation.

Aquaman is a classic case of a game that’s come to the party with too little, too late. Trying to ride the wave of comic reincarnations is admirable, but the developers needed to come up with something either original or addictive to compensate for not being first to the party. As it stands, Aquaman tries an awful lot to be like Spider-Man, but it doesn’t have enough gameplay, graphical or audio punch to stand on its own two feet. And not just because most Atlanteans are mermen.