by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
There's been many resent comic book games for resent systems, Superman, Batman & Robin, Hulk, Fantastic Four and Spawn. And you know what all these games have in common?
THEY SUCK!!!
Well finally a comic book comes out that's really worth playing, Spider-Man.
You play as Spider-Man (hints the name) and he must clear his Spidey name from a imposter who has made him look like a thief. In Spidey's quest you'll fight every villain that ever cross Spidey's path. Dr. Octopus, Venom, Carnage, Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard, Mysterio, and a few others.
Plus almost every other Marvel super hero makes a appearance in this game.
The gameplay is the best feature on Spider-Man. You can climb any wall and swing to and from any building. You can hide on the ceiling and get the drop on the enemy.
You fight enemies with punch and kicks or use webbing on them and stop them in their tracks.
There's a few combos but not a whole lot. It just makes Spidey fight simple and you don't have to worry about the perfect combo. There's are special moves; Web Yank, Web Dome, and Web Spikes to name a few.
The graphics are great but not the best ever. While colorful levels and well animated are a plus there's a lot of fine detail that was over looked. Also the characters have that Tomb Raider blocky-ness to them. The FMV is also not the best, choppy and blocky makes the FMV really look sad. There's tons of voice acting in Spider-Man. Most of it is extremely campy. Bad puns, goofy dialog and Spidey's uncontrollable urge to talk to himself, its all here. The return of the classic Spider-Man theme with a new edge was a welcome.
The control for the most part is done quite well, battling enemies and swinging by your web is a breeze. The only complaints is the camera angles don't follow Spidey vary well and when climbing on ceilings and walls you find your self lost in the control at times.
The levels are huge with bosses that can be a real challenge, there's tons of places to explore in this game. There hasn't been a great Spider-Man game sense the Atari 2600 days.
There's TONS of secrets to be found in Spider-Man, outfits, comic covers, and even a what if mode that changes all sort of things in the game. (kind of a what's the difference puzzle)
PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION
GRAPHICS: 8 SOUND & MUSIC: 8.5 CONTROL: 8
SECRETS: 10 ORIGINALITY: 9.5 FUN & REPLAY: 10
If your looking for a comic book adventure and was disappointed with every one you ever played.
You'll find that Spider-Man on the Playstation will give you new hope that a good comic book game can be made. OVERALL: 9