Spider-Man 2
Games based on movie licenses have the unfortunate reputation of being poor, rushed-out, cash-ins created only to fleece a few extra bucks out of rabid fans. Then you have launch titles for new consoles that are often just visual showcases of what the new hardware can do but contain very little substance. Mixing a movie license with a launch title sounds like a sure fire recipe for disaster and while I had high hopes for Spider-Man 2 my worst fears have been realized.
Loosely based on the movie of the same name, Spider-Man 2 is the tale of Peter Parker and his adventures as the titular masked superhero. The game isn't based on any of the bigger console versions and instead tries to forge its own path within the limitations of the DS hardware. The game takes the form of a platform/beat 'em up which has traditionally done quite well on 2D hardware but in the case of Spider-Man 2 its evident that the game was rushed out to meet launch deadlines. At least the graphics does the DS hardware justice and while the game is 2D it features some nice 3D looking backgrounds. Certain parts of the level will rotate around the player to give the impression of depth but all this hard work on the part of the artists is undermined by the level designers. The levels in Spider-Man 2 has got to be some of the most repetitive and poorly designed ones I have ever had the misfortune of playing. I can understand that the levels are big so that Spider-Man gets to show off his web swinging skills but once again it is the implementation that is so poor. Levels are huge, sprawling affairs that are sparsely populated by your objectives, which all involve beating up thugs while rescuing people. Not only is it boring to search for these but there's the occasional time limit thrown in as well for maximum frustration. Then there's the fact that you have to do it all over again if you die, which thanks to the loose controls and dodgy collision detection is an entirely too often occurrence. You don't even have a map to help you navigate the illogical mess of cobbled together parts that make u p each level. Controlling Spider-Man is about as easy as herding spiders as he has the nasty habit of sticking to everything in sight. This is not something that is useful in the middle of a fight against armed foes that requires a huge beat down to be defeated and the added time limits makes things even more frustrating. Spider-Man has the useless ability to go into slow motion when close to enemies but the timing required to pull this off will often just see you getting knocked back in slow-mo. There are some special moves to unlock and they are activated from the touch screen which by the way is woefully underused in this game. The audio isn't too bad but nothing I would call memorable and the repeated cries of "help me Spider-Man" soon starts to grate. You don't even have the luxury of turning it off as it is often the only clue you have to locate nearby hostages. There's some nice bits of FMV crammed into the cart but their inclusion does nothing to alleviate the frustration the game provides. I'm sure there is going to be a few hard-core Spider-Man fans that will enjoy this title but as someone who has played previous (and much better) Spidey games I can't really recommend this one. It shows some potential in certain areas, especially for a launch title but in the end it is one of those games that will soon be surpasses by something far better in every way. |
TAGS: Spider-Man, Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Mysterio, The Vulture, Doc Ock
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