Thor: God of Thunder
By Christopher Healy,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Violent, repetitive bash-and-smash gets old really fast.
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Thor: God of Thunder
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What’s It About?
In the opening of THOR: GOD OF THUNDER (which has an original storyline that veers away from the plot of the film, Thor), Asgard, home of the gods, is attacked by ice trolls. In that battle, a female warrior to whom Thor is close to is killed. Defying his father's orders, Thor goes out to seek revenge and ends up escalating the war. He eventually learns that he was being manipulated by his trickster brother, Loki.
Is It Any Good?
Thor: God of Thunder has some good points. The controls work very well (especially on the Wii, where you can get that visceral feel of swinging Thor's hammer by waving your remote), the not-too-tough difficulty is nice for giving non-pros a shot at winning, and there's a decent customization aspect that lets you upgrade Thor's powers to your liking. But none of those details outweigh the game's overwhelming repetitiveness. Fight off a slew of enemies to open the path to the next area; run to that area; fight off another slew of the same exact enemies to open the path to the next area; repeat. The boss battles, which feature some enormous villains, are cool the first time you encounter a boss, but then you need to defeat the same boss multiple times -- in exactly the same way each time. Even the visuals get boring after a while. How many levels of "ice world" can you sit through, especially when all the enemies look like slight variations on the same crystalline ice man? The game starts off with so many ice-world levels that some players might not last long enough to see any other environments.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in the game. With its hordes of enemies and visceral combat, does Thor: God of Thunder feel more violent than most superhero games? Is the impact of the violence lessened by the enemies being non-human?
How do you feel about a game based on a character that is popular with children getting a "Teen" rating?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Sega of America
- Release date: May 3, 2011
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Superheroes
- ESRB rating: T for Violence, Animated Blood
- Last updated: August 30, 2016
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