Stan Lee Makes His iOS Debut With Verticus...He Should Probably Stick To Comics

Posted 5 months ago By - Michael Dulson

Stan “The Man” Lee, the creator and co-creator of some of the world’s most beloved comic book superheroes, such as Spider-Man, the Avengers and the X-Men. Stan Lee has seen his comic creations come to life in many different formats, from movies to video games, but Verticus - an original hero - is his first iOS creation. Verticus is an endless free-falling game, so the question is, can The Man give new life to the genre?

Verticus does have very nice animated-style visuals. The music is exciting, and features Stan Lee as the only voice in the game. Verticus begins with a hand drawn-style cutscene - much like a comic book - with Stan Lee narrating the setup. The story is that of an alien race arriving on Earth, heading straight for the core. They have a cosmic fuse with them at the center of the Earth. You - for an unexplained reason - are falling while blacked out, then the game starts with you waking up. You have to fall to the center of the Earth, grab the fuse, get to the other side of the planet, and take the fuse to space to ultimately save the day. However, since this is an endless game, you never save the day, which doesn’t make the character much of a “hero”.

You control the hero with an on-screen analog stick which fortunately doesn’t get in way of the gameplay. This is nice, but our “hero” falling takes up a good chunk of the screen, making it sometimes hard to tell what is coming up or where obstacles are placed. Naturally, this led to a lot of cheap deaths. There is only one mode and it gets boring fast because it’s the same thing over and over again. You can unlock all the upgrades and suits with the in-game currency, but if you really want the exact same suit in a different color, or want to continue playing sooner rather than later, you have to pay up. Yes, you have to pay to continue playing. Making the replayability thin out faster than the “hero” plummeting.

Final Focus

I had high hopes for Stan Lee’s first venture into the iOS platform, but those hopes were shattered as I discovered a boring endless faller with a pay to continue scheme. Just because a big name is attached to it, doesn’t mean you have to download it. Verticus is nothing more than a fallen hero.

Should you feel the need to check this out, Stan Lee’s Verticus is now available on the App Store for $0.99.