The visuals look dated by next-gen standards, but hold up pretty well considering these are current-gen titles, particularly in the Xbox version, which runs at 720p widescreen. The effects you'll expect from a Snowblind game are here, like realistic water and plenty of nifty particle effects to go along with all the flames, lasers, and magic abilities going off on-screen as you punch and blast your way through the game's many stages. The environmental stuff works well, allowing you to, much like in Insomniac's Freedom Force, to lift cars and truck, uproot lamp posts, and toss around mailboxes or priceless vases. The characters themselves look good, with plenty of attention to detail, and it's nice to see that much care was made to get some interesting powers out of even the more one-dimensional superheroes. Yes, Green Arrow can shoot arrows. But while you may not have a boxing glove arrow, you do have explosive arrows, electrical arrows, flaming arrows, multiple arrow shots, and even an aerial barrage that can lay down a carpet of pointy threats at anyone unfortunate enough to stand in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One unfortunate case of the visuals disappointing occurred when we encountered some draw-in issues with our play through of the game, in a subway station level that didn't properly load in the backgrounds, forcing us to pause the game repeatedly to continue navigating the game. If DC superhero fans can get past this technical bug, and the occasional touch of slowdown, they'll appreciate the nods to comicdom's past, like Zatanna's alternate costume from Identity Crisis, and the original Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. Green Lantern fans in particular have been given the goods, with three versions of John Stewart, as well as playable versions of Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan.


Voice work is provided by talents like Ron Perlman, who gives a very grim delivery for Batman, alongside a few lesser-known talents that do a good job, if you don't have a predetermined idea in your head of what these characters should sound like, mostly an issue for those devotees of the animated series. Green Arrow, for instance, just seems a bit too cheerful and happy to match the character.

If you've enjoyed previous Snowblind titles, then you probably found them incredibly fun when playing with a friend, and so it's no surprise that during co-op play, Justice League Heroes really shines. The boss fights on the higher difficulty settings are truly strategic encounters that will require teamwork and coordination, which is much harder to accomplish with an AI controlled bot, or by hot-swapping quickly between two characters. It's also just more fun to play with a friend, particularly because the joy of beating hordes of bad guys with a buddy is one of those experiences that players have treasured since the golden days of Gauntlet. It's too bad that some of the more interesting encounters in the game don't hold up as well during the single player experience as they do when played with a friend, although nothing that the game throws at you is insurmountable, unless you chose that ultimate difficulty setting.

You'll likely have fun with Justice League Heroes if you enjoy the classic dungeon crawl games that Snowblind has previously developed, and even moreso if you're a fan of comic books and the Justice League of America in particular. This holiday season, you have quite a few options to choose from for your costumed excitement, and Justice League Heroes, despite its flaws, is well worth playing. Whether you choose to do so as a weekend rental, or by traversing the storyline repeatedly with powered up characters on ever increasing difficulty levels is, of course, up to you.