Spiderman is one of those super heroes that is just damn cool, for years he had to sit back and watch as some of his fellow super friends got the spotlight. Now his time has finally risen and it could be the best of them all. With a game on all three major consoles as well as one handheld, and a movie that looks to blow the roof off of any super hero movie in recent memory Spiderman is finally getting his own. The question is whether or not he can prove his worth to the die hard spidey fans of yesteryear. Only time will tell, but for now let’s just discuss the topic at hand!
Spiderman for the Xbox is based on the upcoming movie, it is also not far in comparison to the other spidey games recently released on the PSOne. The engine remains the same but the graphics overhaul is incredible, detailed textures and smooth frame rates give this game it’s next generation look. Swinging through city buildings and hearing people talk about Spiderman is just one of the very nice touches Treyarch has done with this already awesome engine. The character models are very nicely detailed, looking almost like their movie counterparts, the cities and levels are also very nicely done. The game gives you a sense of being Spiderman that no other game has yet to match.
The voices in the game are where the production value shines, seeing is how this game is an officially licensed movie product Treyarch had the privilege of getting Toby Maguire and Willem Dafoe as the voices for Spiderman and the Green Goblin, very nice. Toby really nails spidey’s stale sense of humor and Willem is the Green Goblin to the extreme! The game’s audio flare is almost as nice as it’s visual, but in the end the game rounds itself very nicely!
The control is where some people are having issues, controlling spidey is never going to be perfected, he has too many ways of moving. Being as limber as he is finding a control scheme that is perfect would be impossible. Thankfully I am a gamer and I can be patient, learning the controls took work but after three to four levels I had it down pat, also playing the previous two games in full didn’t hurt either as this game plays almost identical with a few bells and whistles. The coolest new move is the web zip which allows you to quickly swing to a certain place with the left trigger, great for avoiding enemies and trouble as well!
Here is my bitching paragraph, what were other reviewers smoking? They claim this game shows no slowdown, well I must have weird eyes because I saw plenty, nothing to harm game play mind you, but it is still there and noticeable. The good thing is that the XBox version is about a million times faster than the PS2 which almost crawls at certain points. Another thing I want to point out is that the XBox version of Spiderman also contains extra levels based on Kraven The Hunter. He is an XBox exclusive and the levels still fit seemingly into the game’s storyline, now that is incentive to own this version. If you own all three systems this is the version to buy.
In the end Spiderman is an awesome game that deserves to be played through for fans of spidey and adventure fans in general. If you own all three consoles buy the XBox version, if you only have a PS2 or GCN then get the Cube version, and if you are only a Sony die hard, get the PS2 version. It may not be the best but even on the PS2 the game still kicks ass! Do yourself a favor and get slingin’ web heads, this is ZT sayin’ “One for JJ”.
