If you don’t know about the Ben 10 series, I’m pretty sure your kids do. The franchise is popular enough to spawn an army of toys, 5 video games, 3 installments of the television series and at least 3 movies. Ben 10 is a cartoon show produced by Cartoon Network, and has one of my favourite comic writers, Joe Kelly, at the helm of the writing team.
The story follows Ben Kirby Tennyson, a mild mannered young lad, who stumbles upon something otherworldly one day and gains the ability to turn into various aliens, all with their own unique powers and characteristics. The show takes the typical superhero formula (and coincidently serial killer…) of having to balance a normal life with the hero’s true fantastical identity but twists it a little by making the hero a young boy with school work and family life to balance. Easy enough to understand why boys under the age of 14 identify with Ben.
The video games adaptations aren’t singularly innovative and don’t do much to stand out visually or gameplay-wise; they only care about appealing to the Ben 10 fan niche, but if your child is part of that niche then they’ll be enthralled by the chance to animate their favourite cartoon hero.
The Ben 10 Alien Force installment has put out the most video games so far, but there is a new game out for the latest installment in the series and, since the franchise is so popular, you can be sure there will be more to come by the end of the 52 planned episodes. The upcoming Ben 10 Ultimate Alien games will center on the new Ultimatrix (replacing the original Omnitrix) and a huge host of aliens Ben will be able to turn into, both new and old.
