Spider-Man

"Spider sense tingling...urge to talk in sentence fragments rising"

Finally, a really good Spider-Man game. Most of them were just side-scrolling fighters or platformers that required little or no thought. This is different. This is fun, original and challenging. Chock full of cameos, replay, and fun I highly recommend Spider-Man to all fans, whether you like Spider-Man or not.

Story: Seeing how this is based on a comic book you know there will be plenty of plot twists and surprises. When the game starts off an imposter Spider-Man steals Dr. Octo Octavius' latest invention and Spider-Man has to try and clear his name. Other side plots pop up along the way though, including the kidnapping of Mary Jane Parker (Spider-Man's wife), a bank robbery, and The Scorpion trying to kill Jay Jonah Jameson, the boss of Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker. The plot is very original and feels like it was taken straight from a Spider-Man comic.
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Game Play: Game play for this game varies greatly. The game is broken up into levels and each level has several missions incorporated into it. For example on his way to rescue his wife Spider-Man will have to stop the robbery of another different expensive piece of scientific equipment. Some missions will have you swinging and climbing buildings while others will take place inside. One particular mission has you climbing up a vertical wall while avoiding the cops(they don't know it was an imposter who stole Doc Oc's latest invasion). In between each mission you will see Spidey talking to either himself, an enemy, or another super hero such as The Flame or Dare Devil.
Another interesting thing about this game is that it requires some thought, not just run in, hit the bad guys, lather rinse repeat. Right from the first level you have to figure out how to silently take out some bank robbers so that you don't have any of the hostages killed. If so much as one is killed it's game over. Some of the levels incorporate puzzles as well. For example in one level you have to press the right combination of buttons to open a set of doors Venom is hiding behind. Nothing extremely complicated but it's a very nice addition.
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Controls: The controls to this game are fairly easy to learn and are responsive the majority of the time. X kicks, B punches, Y and any direction is used to fire various types of webbing and the A button is used when talking or choosing options outisde the game or jumping when inside the game. You can use the R button to swing from building to building or wall to wall. You can also use the R button and the Y button in certain spots to do a zip-line up to the ceiling. This can be extremely useful when you're in a hurry and don't have the time to crawl up the side of the wall and onto the ceiling. Another really useful feature is that you can use either the joypad or the d-pad to move around. I recommend using the joypad to move and using the d-pad when firing the various types of webs.
The one thing that can get really annoying is when you try to do certain attacks with your web and end up doing the wrong one. What will happen the most often is you will go to do the impact web (Y + up) and you'll just continue to shoot a regular web and since you're holding up you'll use about a whole cartridge. However this is rarely a very big problem.
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Graphics: The graphics are quite good. All the 2-d comic characters made a wonderful 3-d conversion. The FMVs are particularly nice, although as mentioned below it would have been nice if the character's looked more like they were talking when they were.
Peter Parker and Eddie Brock's faces are a little blocky and with the exception of Venom none of the characters' mouths move when they talk but other than that the graphics are amazing. All the building are well detailed, Spider-Man's webs look really cool and all the backgrounds in the indoor levels are very detailed and a pleasure to look at.
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Music: The music to this game is very nice. Although it only plays at the intro screen and during battles it fits the game quite well. It has a very quick feel to it that fits when you're beating down the bad guys as quickly as possible. I also found it very interesting that they included the original Spider-Man theme in the game, which gives it a bit of a nostalgic feel.
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Sound Effects: The sound effects are amazing, whether it be the one-liners tossed out or the talking done during FMVs. My personal favorite is the sound of Spidey tossing out a one-liner as he beats down on a henchman. All the voice-overs are done quite well and sound like they're taken straight from the animated Spider-Man series on FOX.
Other sound effects include punches, kicks, and your webbing all of which sound great. One effect that amazed me is when you fight in some closed areas such as caverns every hit you dish out or take yourself is echoed, making the game sound incredibly realistic.
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Rent or Buy?: With 6 Spiderman suits to unlock and around 30 hidden comics to find I recommend buying this game if you want to completely finish the game. Otherwise rent it. You should be able to finish it in 3 or 4 days without finding all the secrets.

In closing if you want to play a fun, albeit insanely difficult at times, action game then buy Spider-Man. It's fun and chock full of secrets, great voice acting, and plenty of standard Spider-Man sarcasm and cynicism

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/01, Updated 08/07/01