flash-hammer's Full Review: Spiderman The Movie for Xbox
Spiderman is based on the 2002 movie starring Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe. It is also a bit of a spin-off of the Spider Man game based on the hugely popular Marvel Comics that was released on the PlayStation and the Dreamcast about a year previously.
The game does not really follow the movie’s story much at all, and tries to focus more on Spiderman’s adventures that took place off-camera. This means that not only will you have to take on the movie version of the Green Goblin, but also revamped versions of other comic villains such as the Scorpion, The Vulture, The Shocker, and in Xbox only levels, Kraven the Hunter.
The game is an adventure game, in which you view Spidey from a third-person point of view. There are levels in which you will be swinging amongst the tops of Skyscrapers, and ones where you will have to scrap it out in buildings.
Graphically the game is pretty good, with the character models being created very well and both the city settings and the insides of buildings being created very well in terms of looks.
Spidey and the Goblin look exactly like they do in the movie, and the building’s windows all have great reflections, not to mention the fact you can see all the traffic below.
The animation on the character models is also impressive. Spidey flips and jumps about flawlessly.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say this was one of the best looking Xbox games, but it sure gives it a try.
The sound in the game is pretty good as well. Activision have managed to get in Maguire and Dafoe to voice their characters, and Bruce Campbell, who played the wrestling announcer, to narrate the training levels, but no other members of the cast feature. Hilariously, the Vulture is voiced by a Mr. Dwight Schultz, better known to people of my age as ‘howling mad’ Murdock of the A Team. The music is really just super-hero-esque themes that grow pretty repetitive. None of the Danny Elfman stuff is used here.
The game controls in a manner that I hear is similar to the previous Spiderman titles, but seeing as I haven’t played them, I cant comment. The basic controls are :
X: Punch/Action
Y: Is to use your webs. Holding it down webs up enemies.
A: Jump
B: Kick
R:Web Swing
L: Vertical Zip Line.
You can combo attacks and there are a variety of weapons and other ways to use your web, such as making boxing gloves or a shield.
You have to earn more combo’s by finding golden spider icons dotted about the various stages. I have no idea how many of them there are, but there does seem to be quite a few.
These are all laid out in a manner that is quite tough to get used to, but once you do it is fairly simple and after a while becomes incredibly easy to use.
They all respond to a satisfactory degree, and there really isn’t much to fault the game on here.
The game plays to a fairly enjoyable level. There is no denying that when you are swinging around kicking villain that the game is great. But some of the levels are just plain annoying. There is one where you are in an office (Oscorp’s I think, its been a while) and there are security robots chasing you. I just couldn’t get into this level, and ended up probably spending more time trying to do this stage than I did in the whole of the rest of the game.
There are stages when you have to duel the Vulture and the Goblin in the sky, and these are the stages the game is worth playing for. While the basic levels are fun, these are what brings the game, and the character to life.
That one stage aside, I really only do have two complaints about the game, and the first is the length. I wouldn’t say the game is easy, but it doesn’t have enough levels to keep you from finishing it in a fairly short timescale. My only other problem is the camera, which can easily get lost as you swing around the city. while you can control it, in the mid-air duels you have far more to worry about than fiddling with the camera.
To be honest, I really enjoyed Spiderman. It didn’t cost very much, and was a great fun adventure title. The basic levels where you beat up thugs and stuff are fun, and the Web-Swinging duels are pretty awesome. I would recommend the game to fans of the movie, and those out looking for a good adventure title. With the sequel about to be released and a game tie-in as well, expect to find this game fairly cheaply and easily in the coming weeks, and you would do well to pick it up. It may not be very long, but while it lasts, it’s a great time.
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