Ultimate Spider-Man

"Doesn't Quite meet the hype"

Ultimate Spider-man was a chance to improve on the bad things that frustrated gamers in Spider-man 2. While it does improve in some areas, it takes away a lot of the good things about Spider-man 2 while keeping a lot of the negative things. It's a decent game, but generally disappointing.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Ultimate Spiderman is a slight improvement over Spider-Man 2. While the story is incredibly short, the side-missions are epic. The only problem is that the side missions are just as annoying, tedious, and inhumanely difficult as in Spider-man 2. The fighting is much more simple, which is a good and a bad thing. You don't have to remember tons of button combinations, but the moves aren't as powerful, and with certain enemies they are completely useless. In certain situations, like the new battle tours, you get surrounded by enemies and then it's just about all over. I still think that no matter how well trained in the martial arts a person is, they shouldn't be able to block punches from Spider-man unless they have some sort of superpowers. The web-lasso is back, but now it doesn't take out other enemies. Instead, those other enemies attack you relentlessly, and make your web lasso useless. Once you get punched, you have little or no chance of getting away from a crowd of thugs without a substantial amount of damage. There is no invincible frame, so you can be punched again and again while recovering from the previous punch. At least enemies can no longer dodge webs. However, there is no impact web. The random missions in this game don't occur very often, but there is a lot less variety in them then in SM2. The swinging is very basic in this game, and swinging upgrades are won by winning races against Johnny Storm. There are a lot less swing speed upgrades then in SM2, and your final swing speed is still very slow. You can't get enough speed to do loop-de-loops anymore. Also, you can't swing around lampposts or flagpoles anymore. The only improvements in swinging in Ultimate Spider-man are the ability to climb the webs, and the double jump rather than the charged jump. What I want to know is: What ever happened to the web Yoyo from Spider-man 1?
You can also play as Venom. Venom's gameplay consists simply of smash, eat, and run. You have to eat people to sustain yourself. You can also throw cars, and when you build up your attention meter, policemen and Trask Supersoldiers come after you, as well as helicopters. Playing as Venom is lots of fun, but there's not much to do except during story mode, which is far too short-lived.

Story: The story is definitely the high point of this game, with a story created by the creator of the ultimate spider man series. The story ties in with the comic, and some characters make their first appearances in the series in this game.

Graphics/Sound: The graphics in this game are fantastic. They use an advanced version of cel-shading that makes it look like a moving comic book, and the film sequences are also shown in panels, which really adds to the effect. The sound is good, with good voice acting and sound effects.

Replayabilty level: Short. The story mode slips right through the gamer's fingers, and the side-missions are frustrating and tedious. There are unlockables in the game, but really all that you unlock are different costumes, which are disappointing to say the least.

Buy/Rent: I'd say if you've played Spider-man 2, you'll be disappointed. This game loses a lot of the good qualities of SM2, while adding more negative qualities of its own, so you should rent it. If you've never played SM2, and you have a good interest in Spider-man, then it's worth picking up.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05