Common Sense Media Review
By Marc Saltzman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Play as an MIB agent in mediocre arcade shooter.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Men in Black: Alien Crisis
What's It About?
Just like the Men in Black movies, gamers can play as an MIB agent tasked with saving the world from an alien takeover. Available for all three major console platforms, you slip into the suit and shades of agent Peter Delacoeur -- an ex-thief who trades his art-stealing skills for alien shooting. The third-person arcade shooter has you engage in firefights with aliens, upgrade your weapons (including MIB's famous Noisy Cricket and Plasma Handgun), and secretly interrogate suspects. Gamers also have access to Men in Black gear and the tricked-out MIB car from the feature films to chase down alien suspects. MEN IN BLACK: ALIEN CRISIS offers multiplayer options on the same television.
Is It Any Good?
Men in Black: Alien Crisis has its moments of intense firefights, good voice acting, and a fun story that doesn't try to recreate the new MIB movie. Along with the single-player campaign there's also two-player split screen multiplayer and a four-player "hot-seat" mode for those who want to challenge siblings or friends to various sharpshooter challenges and competitions (such as the V.R. Challenges mode). But the shooting gets a little repetitive and tedious after a while, the graphics are subpar compared to today's games, and there's little replayability. It's certainly not worth the $60 price tag ($50 on the Wii), but might be a fun weekend rental for those familiar and fond of the Men in Black flicks.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why Activision -- a company with such respected and successful franchises like Call of Duty and Skylanders -- would also create these lackluster movie tie-ins, such as Men in Black: Alien Crisis and the recent Battleship.
This is an arcade shooter where you are killing aliens, so parents can talk about the impact of media violence.
Game Details
- Platforms : Nintendo Wii , PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360
- Skills : Collaboration : cooperation , teamwork , Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , collecting data , Self-Direction : identifying strengths and weaknesses
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Activision
- Release date : May 22, 2012
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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