Name: Ben 10: Alien Force – The Rise of Hex
Item: Ben 10: Alien Force – The Rise of Hex
Author: Retro Replay

Ben 10: Alien Force – The Rise of Hex

The first stretch of Ben 10: Alien Force – The Rise of Hex feels comfortably familiar: run, jump, climb ladders, punch through enemies, and hunt down keycards that open the next door. It is straightforward licensed-platformer stuff, but the Omnitrix keeps it from becoming entirely routine. Switching Ben into different aliens whenever you want gives the levels a pleasant toy-box energy.

Its best moments come when an alien ability changes how you move through a room rather than merely how you fight. Growing plants to make a route upward or using electricity on machinery gives the platforming a light puzzle layer. The game is a modest, uncomplicated 2D adventure, but Ben 10 fans will get more out of its full roster of transformations than genre veterans looking for a demanding platformer.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

For the opening hour, The Rise of Hex asks you to settle into a very traditional side-scroller rhythm. Ben jumps between platforms, climbs ladders, slides, throws punches, fights enemies, and searches for the keycards needed to push ahead. None of that is unusual, and the keycard-and-door structure can feel mechanical when you are simply backtracking through another stretch of platforms to find the one thing blocking progress.

The Omnitrix is what gives the game its reason to exist beyond that basic framework. Ben can eventually change into ten aliens, and each has separate health, a distinct combat style, two attacks, and a special ability. More importantly, transformations are unrestricted: you can swap forms at any time rather than saving them for a meter or a tightly rationed special move. That freedom makes experimentation painless and helps the game feel like it understands the fantasy of playing Ben 10.

The abilities add the most welcome variety. Swampfire can grow plants to create a path to higher ground, while Brainstorm can shock mechanical devices into operation or shut them down. These are small-scale puzzles rather than brain-bending challenges, but they break up the fighting and make the alien roster matter outside combat. Once you start treating each obstacle as a prompt to consider another form, the game’s simple level progression clicks into place.

Combat is direct and accessible, with Ben’s fists available before you lean on alien attacks. The different forms give you options, though the underlying goal remains clear: move forward, deal with opposition, and use the right power when the route is blocked. That makes it easy to pick up, especially for younger fans, but it also limits the surprise for anyone hoping the platforming will become much more ambitious.

Graphics

The game uses a side-scrolling 2D layout with 3D character models. That perspective keeps the action easy to parse: platforms, ladders, doors, and enemies sit on a clear left-to-right route, while Ben’s alien transformations remain the focal point of the screen.

Story

The plot gives you a clean cartoon-villain objective: Ben Tennyson is trying to stop Hex from taking over the world. It is a functional excuse to send him from obstacle to obstacle, not a premise that needs much setup before the action begins.

What carries the story side is the chance to inhabit Ben’s role directly. A ten-alien lineup including Swampfire, Big Chill, Humungousaur, Echo Echo, Chromastone, Jetray, Spider Monkey, Goop, Lodestar, and Brainstorm means the game keeps returning to the series’ central hook: Ben’s problem-solving power comes from becoming somebody else for a moment.

If you know the Alien Force era, that roster is the strongest narrative flavor the game offers. If you do not, the world-saving setup is still easy to follow, but there is little reason to expect the story to do more than keep the platforms and confrontations moving.

Overall Experience

The Rise of Hex is a compact licensed platformer that gets its mileage from letting you transform freely. Its conventional jumping, ladder climbing, keycard hunting, and enemy fights are serviceable rather than exciting on their own. The game becomes more enjoyable when you stop viewing a transformation as just another attack and start using it to solve the next environmental snag.

That makes this a better fit for Ben 10 fans than for platform-game diehards. Fans get a broad Alien Force roster and a generous ability-switching setup; genre experts may find the basic structure too familiar, especially during the more routine door-and-keycard stretches. It is approachable, clear, and built around a good representation of Ben’s signature gadget, even if it rarely reaches beyond that comfort zone.

The payoff is modest but real if you want a no-fuss Ben 10 adventure. Give it a chance for the transformation variety and the light ability puzzles, not because you expect a major reinvention of side-scrolling platform action. At 5.9, it lands as a decent fan-oriented download with one strong idea carrying a very standard game around it.