A disgrace to the legacy.
Few comic book characters predate the likes of Superman and Batman, the iconic duo created in 1938 and 1939, respectively. However, there are two that come to mind for me; The Shadow, and The Phantom, characters that are wildly different in design, but follow the path of fighting for justice with names that generally mean the same thing. Both of these characters have stood the test of time and even had full-length motion pictures, with the latter even having an awful TV series that treated the character more like Robocop than the original 1936 classic.
The Ghost Who Walks initially was meant to make their videogame debut in 2003 through a GameBoy Advance title that never saw the light of day. This was an effort to make games based on the Defenders of the Earth which was a comic and cartoon series from decades ago. While the Phantom has endured, it is only to its most faithful audience, lovers of the classic character or fans of the 1996 Billy Zane movie that showed that while the Phantom can work in film, it is painfully obvious that the costume cannot, hence the futuristic iteration in the 2009 TV series.
This makes The Phantom, available for all platforms, a chance for the character to shine, a videogame debut that would show the brilliance of the character, especially as a gorgeous beat’em up brawler that is fully hand-drawn, complete with motion comic cutscenes and some actual effort to include voice acting. While the presentation is sound as it attempts to capture the appeal of the pulp serials and the classic format of his comic book history, every other aspect of this game is downright miserable, a slap in the face to the character’s legacy, and beat’em brawlers in general. While it’s not the worst brawler I’ve played, it’s right up there, unfortunately.
The Phantom is a costumed crime-fighter who operates within the fictional African country of Bangalla. The Phantom is also a role that is a lineage that is passed down from son to son, with several of them having the name, Kit Walker. This Phantom is apparently the 21st Phantom, who married Diana Palmer, and has a son, one who is kidnapped at the start of the game. The story here is you taking action against the Singh Brotherhood, mainly their leader, Dugai Singh, as you chase him all over the globe and attempt to rescue Kit, the next in line for the Phantom mantle.
I want to get the presentation out of the way because honestly, it is the only aspect of this game that shines. The hand-drawn artwork and motion comic cutscenes are fantastic. The art assets of its characters and the few villains that make up this brawler are top-notch, with immaculate detail that shines. While the background elements are generally lifeless and bland, they nonetheless look great, if overly too repetitive in their surroundings. The comic book flourishes are welcomed, and the menus and font choices are great, honoring the comic series that came before it.
Sadly, everything else suffers tremendously, as no single aspect of this title as a videogame works. Controls are unresponsive, the move list is only available from the main menu, and I had several bugs, crashes, and technical issues that plagued so much of my two hours with the game. Had these technical issues not existed, then I easily could have wrapped credits in just over an hour. Unfortunately, those technical issues exist and resulted in a game that felt more broken than ready to step into the light.
The Phantom provides the same format we tend to see in most brawlers. You start at the left and work your way to the right. There are boxes to smash that hold treasure and health, and you defeat enemies as you attempt to complete the stage. This structure doesn’t change until it starts having you walk all the way back to the start in some cases. This causes most levels to feel incredibly small as you retread back and take on the enemies that are somehow back on the path you’ve just cleared. Now, I mentioned that you pick up gold along with health, and one of two weapons you’ll find. However, there isn’t really a case to be said for picking up the gold. What does it do? What do I spend it on? Is it just to pad some score I won’t care about? Not even the Shadow knows.. no wait.. wrong character.
Between most levels, you’ll find a suspect who may know where Singh and your son are, these encounters are behind the wheel of a car, on the back of a horse, or behind the controls of a boat. You’ll encounter these sections all over the globe against comparable adversaries, but they all tend to repeat the same “shoot the bomb” objective that results in you defeating them and learning a clue as to the whereabouts of your son. These sections often have 10-15 seconds of nothing as you’ll dodge a small handful of bombs that occasionally appear. They tend to lose the intensity of the chase rather quickly, making me wonder if these bouts are bugged or intentional; I really hope it’s the former.
Across the dozen or so levels, you’ll battle roughly the same eight or nine enemies. Sure, new locations will spawn a new enemy type, but they remain there, meaning the next few locations will have the same bruiser, the same guy with the knives, and whip, and the one single girl you’ll fight. Color variants would have been ideal, but sadly, you’ll fight the same five or six types constantly. It’s a shame, especially since the art assets of these baddies are impressive, including artwork for each type during the Phantom’s special attacks. There is a lot of effort here, but it largely rests with the art team on what actually works and what doesn’t.
You’ll have two boss encounters during the entire game. A wrestler, and Singh. Both fights are identical. You’ll dish out damage until they retreat and heal up as you take on their minions. This is how each fight is structured. While the bout with the wrestler was fine, Singh; on the other hand, glitched out eight times. Once, an enemy stood there and was untouchable, the second and third time, Singh disappeared during the last phase. The fourth time, the game crashed, and the next four times, was a combination of the Phantom being knocked down and not getting back up, or that Singh would do the honors instead. I likely spent more time on the last fight than a third of the entire game’s length. Oh, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t summon my wolf half the time, despite having the charges to do so.
Combat is as basic as you get, Y attacks, B jumps, A picks up money and health, L pulls out your guns with Y shooting them, and Y and X perform a power attack when pressed together. A and B have their own power attack as well, with B allowing you to charge an attack; however, you’ll rarely have the space to deliver such a blow. While one of the charged attacks consumes your meter, you can perform it indefinitely when you run out, making me wonder why it consumes it at all. And, once you charge up your purple Phantom meter, you can pull off a combo strike using R.
The game splits up explaining the combat controls by having most of the features in “controls” and the other half in “combat basics” instead of all in one convenient spot. There is a ton here that the game doesn’t teach you in-game, let alone allow access to this page during gameplay, which it does not. This means you have to memorize the entirety of what is here and hope you got it all locked in. The game also doesn’t mention anything about the throw, which was more of a nuisance than functional. Hell, it barely worked half the time and often resulted in me getting hit by projectiles when it finally decided to kick in.
Where The Phantom suffers the most is that everything feels stiff and with unresponsive controls, I felt my attacks, movement, and abilities only worked half the time. I would solve most encounters by simply drop-kicking left and right, or a punch, punch, kick, punch, punch, kick, combo that seemed to work. However; without a dodge, block, or ducking system, you are left vulnerable to ranged attacks with little recourse on how to deal with them, especially if you are in the middle of a combo you can’t break out of, or that pesky throw animation that will come out of nowhere. It’s frustrating to be hit with these attacks after a level that feels way too padded and lengthy to die right at the end on a ranged attack that comes from off-screen.
What is also bizarre is that during the entire time I played through the campaign, I only found two weapons; a stick, and a bone. While I did find a sword and went “Finally, a new weapon!” it was only a collectible. Present in the game’s main menu is The Vault, which is where you view the collectibles you have found. Why this exists is beyond me since I doubt anyone is even remotely interested in Robin Hood’s arrow, Excalibur; that sword from earlier, or Cleopatra’s Asp. While these certainly have lore within the legacy of this character, they serve as padding here with nothing to show for them. Had these unlocked costumes, like the Phantom in his trench coat, or the ability to play as extra characters, then they would have served as something with meaning to seek out and replay levels to find them.
Once you have completed the game, you’ll unlock Arcade mode. This is essentially just the game again without the story. As much as I wanted to unlock the third mode, Outlast, to see what this mode was, I just couldn’t find it in me to put myself through this game yet again, even with the ability to play as Diana Palmer, who generally has the exact same attacks with nothing different other than summoning her eagle instead of the Phantom’s wolf. That said, given that arcade mode is simply just the same game again, I would assume that Outlast is some sort of survival mode taking place in the exact same areas.
The Phantom has the right aesthetic to pull off what this should have been, but the gameplay stumbles so hard that I can’t honestly recommend this brawler when so many exist on the Switch that are leagues better. With unresponsive controls, and lacking mobility to engage with its systems, The Phantom fumbles the appeal of a strong beat’em up and feels far too simplistic and basic to even enjoy. What frustrates me more is that this is the team behind the upcoming Lady Death game, another brawler I was very much looking forward to. Here is hoping that the feedback from this adventure allows the team to work on improving and deepening the gameplay to be even remotely fun.
Developer - Art of Play Interactive.
Publisher - Art of Play Interactive. Released - March 12th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, PC. Rated - (T) - Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.