Spider-Man 3

"I have never been so confused..."

Ever see one of those movies or TV shows that's just so bad, it's good? You know, everything is just god awful, the story stinks, the actors are bad, but somehow, it's just really cool? For me, that was the old Zelda cartoons that were shown during The Super Mario Brothers Super Show. Watching them now makes me wonder what the hell I liked about it back then. But I still find them funny, even today.

Spider-Man 3 for the Wii fits this same idea. The game is not very good by a technical standard at all, in fact, it feels rushed and incomplete. Yet, for some reason, I continue to play it. There are some games that I found better than this that I put down and quit altogether, because I didn't want to play them. Yet, for some reason, I continue to play this? What is it that keeps this game going for me?

Now, before I continue, I just want to say that I have not seen the movie yet. Hell, I just saw Spider-Man 2 yesterday, so...this review has nothing to do with my opinion of the movie.

The game is a mess graphically. Buildings look dull, people show emotionless actions and facial reactions, everything is just dull. Spider-Man and the many friends and foes he encounters in the main story seem to be the only characters with any input to them at all. The Wii isn't that weak, why was there no effort into the citizens of New York? I know Activision can do better than this.

The sound was my favorite part of the game. Unlike the first two movies, there is no shortage of witty Spider-Man banter in this game. In both movies, I was very disappointed to not hear Spidey taunting his foes as he messed them up. I mean, that's a Spidey trademark, you can't just ignore that! But there is a lot of that in this game, and most of it will bring a smile to your face. Sadly, this dialogue is often repeated way too often, which lowers the effect of it quite a bit. Also, the gang members seem to have the same dialogue, just with different voices. Music is ok, and while swinging through New York, you won't hear any. I liked it that way, only hearing dramatic music when fighting, but some people might not.

As for the gameplay, this is what has me baffled. There is no reason I should like a game that has this dull of a fighting engine and this many glitches. Fighting gets extremely repetitive in this game, just swing the remote a few times, press A, and you have a beaten up thug. Occasionally, you'll have to vault over them by swinging the nunchuck, but these guys are often too weak to be a problem. You have an adrenaline move that you can use to get out of a sticky situation, and it's pretty easy to pull off, but you have to wait for your bar to fill up. In addition, you can also change Spidey into his symbiote costume, which makes you stronger and gives you more health. However, if you leave it on too long, you'll faint or something, I don't know. It never happened to me. Taking it off, however, requires you to enter a series of actions with the remote and nunchuck. This can be a bit annoying, especially if you miss, and once you take the suit off, you'll have to wait a minute to put it back on. It would've been really cool to play for longer periods of time as Symbiote Spidey, but I can understand why this had to be implemented.

The web-slinging is actually quite intuitive. You hold down either the Z or B button on your nunchuck or remote respectively, and then flick your wrist down. By alternating hands, you can simulate swinging through the skyscrapers in New York. Problem is, Spider-Man tends to swing away from where you want him to go. Sometimes, you may find yourself swinging left or right when you want to go straight, and if you want to turn, you may have to double back a bit. Also, maybe this is just me, but sometimes, I tried to web sling and for some reason, I couldn't.

You'll find yourself swinging to locations to either further the story, or to activate a city patrol, where you can help the police take down a gang of baddies. These areas are far away, but thankfully, you can place a marker down on the map screen, and you'll get a radar kinda thing that will lead you to that spot. Story and mission objectives are also highlighted on the main screen, so getting lost isn't a problem. When completing these missions, you'll gain experience points that give you hero points. You can use these points to upgrade your character. The problems come with the actual missions. These involve either saving people, beating up thugs, disarming a bomb, or retrieving evidence. This is really it, there's not a ton of the variety in the side missions. You'll get bored fast. Or, at least, you should...

And now for the big problem. Glitches, glitches glitches, and there are a ton of them. You'll find Spidey sometimes spazes out on a ledge near a building that you're trying to climb, which gets annoying. I also had one time where I saved some woman, and then she started talking...in a man's voice. When carrying people sometimes, they'll disappear, then reappear standing sort of like a zombie while Spider-Man is carrying something invisible. You'll also fail missions before you even start them at times, or you'll fail them in a mission with no time limit. On the other hand, I had failed this one mission in the story line, yet managed to get to the objective seconds later, and the story continued. These do detract from the game..a lot. And I don't think I've uncovered all of them.

The game doesn't actually end. Being a free-roaming adventure, you can keep playing and try to clean up New York city, as well as just swinging through New York. So, the game has some decent replay value.

RECAP:

Pros:

-Nice audio, witty Spider-Man dialogue
-Get to swing through New York, literally
-Replay value is good

Cons:

-Graphics are a mess
-Fighting and missions are repetitive
-Swinging takes some getting used to, may not work at times
-Glitches abound

So, why do I like this? I don't know. I shouldn't. Maybe it's the thrill of actually swinging through New York. Maybe it's laughing at Spidey's dialogue. Whatever the case, this is an unsafe purchase. Rent this first, before you decide to shell out $50.

I've heard bad things about the movie...I hope that they're not true, and if they are, I hope Pirates 3 doesn't suffer the same fate.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/08/07