Ultimate Spider-Man

"Wow. Just wow!"

Last year, Spider-Man 2 gave us probably the best Spider-Man game we've ever had, arguably. The new swing mechanic and free-roaming storyline were a welcome change in comic book games. Now Treyarch has made another Spider-Man game, although this one isn't based off the movies. This one's based off of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book. And MAN DOES THIS SUCKER DELIVER!

GRAPHICS: 10/10
The fact that they've based this off of a comic book definitely shows here. The art style of this game is a new type of cel-shading that makes it look pretty darn close to a real living comic book. The actual character models of a lot of the people in this game are really well done, with the best of them being Beetle, Venom, and Wolverine. The presentation is second to none. While you're playing the game, little comic pop-up panels will show you some of the vital things that are happening. That's a pretty cool touch to really immerse you into the comic book world. The fluidity of Spider-Man is really outstanding. There isn't much fluidity in Venom, but he doesn't need to be. All in all, this area of the game is definitely the best and is practically perfect. If I had to say something bad, it's that...uh...nope I can't say anything bad about the graphics here.

SOUND: 7/10
The voice-overs are single handedly the best part here. The guy doing Peter Parker isn't that good, but he's better than Tobey Maguire. Everybody else is pretty good. The music, well I really didn't notice. The sound effects are pure comic book goodness here. You hear the thwaps and socks and booms everytime and also everytime they're distinct. Maybe an upgrade in the music and getting a better Peter could make this better.

STORY: 10/10
The story is written by Brian Michael Bendis, the guy who wrote all the Ultimate Spider-Man comics. The main story is actually a ton different from the other comics and the movies. In this one, Peter is only 15. Eddie Brock is his best friend, and they work on this cure for cancer their dads left behind. Pete finds out that the person who tries this will turn into the alien monster Venom. Eddie takes it, not knowing that, and becomes the evil Venom. Basically, Pete goes around saving people as Spidey, and Venom just rips everything up trying to destroy Spidey. The script for most boss encounters are really funny, especially Rhino's. Speaking of Rhino, the roster of characters is expansive. The characters include Green Goblin (Oh God!), Carnage (OH GOD!), and Wolverine (OOOOOHHHH GOD!). There's also Beetle and Shocker, but they're meh. The story is incredibly well done and definitely gets my vote for best story of the year.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
OK. In general, they fixed what was wrong, but made worse what was already fine. The swinging in this game is still intuitive, but it feels more hampered than the last one. They did change how Spidey actually plays. No longer is he a powerhouse, but a quick and tricky martial artist. Venom, however, just jumps around eating people and destroying everything. That's a ton of fun! If they could have made it a little more like the Hulk in his last game, it would have been better. I can't believe I just said that. The missions aren't necessarily linear in the fact that you can do them whenever you want, but all the other extra stuff kind of makes you want to finish it already. Many of the extra stuff like beating up petty goons is pretty much the same as last time. However, as Venom, the only way you can replenish health is by eating people, so you can finally eat that annoying kid with the balloon. MWA HAHA! It's still a ton of fun to play this game, but a lot of what they fixed created new problems that aren't really a big hamper, but are still noticeable.

OVERALL:
The presentation, story, and gameplay controls work well to create an immersive comic-book adaptation. The sound and some gameplay elements could still use some work, and while they don't necessarily hamper the game majorly, they are still noticeable.
FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05