Spider-Man 2

"This game will certainly set off your spidey sense!"

Introduction

When pre ordering my Nintendo DS there were two games I was excited about. Inevitably Super Mario 64 was one of them, but I was also very excited about Spiderman 2. Handheld Spiderman games have, in recent years tended to be quite good. Indeed ‘Mysterio's Menace' on the GBA was a solid and enjoyable action game released quite early on in the GBA's lifetime. When you consider that Vicarious Visions, the people behind Mysterio's Menace, made Spiderman 2 there was reason to be quite excited. Unfortunately this game has proved to be a massive let down and although I have long traded the game in, I feel compelled to write this review to warn other gamers away from it, especially if it starts popping up in bargain bins. As quite frankly it is not worth buying, even at bargain price.

Graphics

Lets start with the one part of this game that is actually good. Although the graphics are 2D they are actually really impressive. There are probably those who think that anything less than 3D is a complete waste of time on a new console like the DS. Those people are wrong. 2D gaming still has a place, especially on handheld consoles. Lets be honest the graphics of Spiderman 2 probably do not push the capabilities of the DS to the limit but they are impressive and its fair to say they probably could not have been done on a GBA which is not true of a lot of DS games at the moment.

The levels themselves are probably the best part of the game graphically speaking. The in game locations such as the city, as well as the museum and others all look rather good on the DS screen. When you reach a certain point in a level, for example in the city level when you reach the end of a building a rather neat scrolling effect occurs where the building turns ninety degrees. It is there to create the illusion of 3D and although it is no substitute it is a nice graphical effect all the same.

Character animation is slightly less impressisive, its fair to say you have probably seen this sort of thing on the GBA. Spiderman himself looks pretty good and animates nicely as do each of the bosses. In game enemies are a bit unexciting though and are all too similar to be honest.

Never the less the graphics of Spiderman 2 are certainly the high point. The game probably does not look as impressive as Super Mario 64 DS but having said that there are probably not any other DS games out at the moment, which boast as impressive graphics as Spiderman 2.

Game play

Now we come to the reason I have rated this game so badly. I earlier talked about Mysterio's Menace being a solid and enjoyable Spiderman game. I have to admit I cannot believe the makers of that game have gone on to create this rubbish.

Lets start with arguably the worse part of the game: the level design. In my fifteen years of gaming I have never encountered a game with level deign as bas as this, it is just excruciatingly bad. The problem is the level design is woefully unfocused. There is a specific start and finish but in between the levels are across a number of levels and have a lot of offshoots. It takes an awful lot of exploration to find everything. In a way it is nice to see a developer try and produce a licensed game that is not totally linear. However this is not done in a good way. There are no set paths to follow and levels tend to have random sections tacked on here and there. This makes finding you way around very difficult. Unfortunately it gets worse. The developers decided that in order for the player to complete the level they must defeat every enemy in that level. This forces the player to painstakingly search every nook and cranny just to earn the right to complete the level.

The developers however refused to stop there. They added in one more addition to drag this game to the absolute pits. Time limits. I hate time limits at the best of times as I feel they go against everything that makes gaming enjoyable. Gamers should be free to explore, not be put under pressure to finish an objective in a given time. Not only does it make the game shorter it usually makes it a lot more frustrating. The situation is no different for Spiderman 2. The fact that the player has to painstakingly search every level and do it in a tight time limit makes this game unbelievably frustrating. Granted there are not time limits in every level but they are frequent enough to be a major pain in the backside. It makes me wonder if any testers actually played this game as surely they would have realised these elements combined to make a totally frustrating gaming experience.

The combat is not frankly much better. It is unbelievably badly implemented. When an enemy is in range you are supposed to be able to activate your spidey sense, which takes you into slow motion and in theory should allow you to pulverise your enemies much more easily. In practice this is not the case. By the time the enemy is close enough for the spidey sense to be activated the enemy is usually already attacking and does not stop attacking until they floor the web slinger. Since spidey sense cannot be activated whilst you are being attacked and it is pretty much impossible to defeat some enemies without the use of your spidey sense. This serves to make combat a very frustrating experience, especially considering the alarming rate at which your health bar falls.

Touch/ Dual screen.

Since this is a DS game it is important to rate the games used of the handhelds special features. Spiderman 2 frankly does not make the most of the DS capabilities. All the action is played on the top screen whilst the touch screen is used purely for activating special moves. Most of the special moves are locked and can only be unlocked by completing the games unfairly hard secondary objectives or by popping in a copy of Spiderman Mysterio's menace. Its not really worth the bother as none of them are that useful.

The touch screen is also used in some boss fights. This is nicely done but is hardly exciting and considering the awful combat system completely spoils boss fights anyway it is all pretty redundant. Frankly the game makes very little attempt to make use of the DS's unique features when it clearly could have done if the developers had put a little more time and effort into developing the game.

Longevity

As long as it takes to find your receipt and leg it back to the shop. Seriously, there are fourteen levels in total, which do not go very far. Most can be completed and indeed have to be completed in under ten minutes. What makes it even worse is that some of the level designs are repeated just with different objectives. Only the difficulty will keep it going longer than a weekend. By then you will have probably given up anyway.

Conclusion

This game was hugely disappointing. It is incredibly badly designed and frustrating. To be perfectly honest it feels as though it was rushed to make the DS launch. I completed the game but it was never fun. Instead it was a complete chore. The reason I have written this review is to warn other gamers not to buy this game. It really is awful. I would just like to take the time to remind Vicarious Visions, that “With great power comes great responsibility!” Hopefully they will bare that in mind for their next Spiderman game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/05