This game came out while ago, and when everybody first heard about it, there was a little bit of a buzz. All Spiderman games have that sorta stigma around them But then when it DID come out, the reviews weren't so promising. So needless the say, the game didn't do very well. But somewhere deep inside of me, I still wanted to play this game. Josh and Jason from work, both pleaded with me, "No, you don't need to play this" But I didn't listen, well, at least I listened till it went down to $19.99. That's OK ...right?!Well, the look of the game is very cartoony, I like the style that the game is done in. its simple. I like simple. The levels are done in the same way, very linear and simple. They could have spiced up the levels a bit, but what ever.
The premise of the game, is you play as Spiderman , find villains who have been taken control of by Mystero and when you free them, they fight along side of you , or you can even take control of one of the many villains and play has them. That's what I like most about the game. Is finding all the characters that you use to fight along side Spidey. There is quite the roster of villains and Spidey friends. Just to name a few are, The Lizard, Green Goblin, Black Cat, Sandman, Venom, Iron fist, Blade and a ton more. My favourite character is Rhino.
Controlling the characters are pretty easy. Spiderman has a list of moves that are pretty short and easy to remember, no weird combinations. And this is where the game may fall in some aspect. But, if you know how to control Spiderman, then you know how to control the secondary characters, they all have the same button combinations to pull off their moves. Its just the animations that are different when you push the buttons. But then there are some villains that have the same moves has each other in regards to their throws and select punches. So its pretty simple, master one guy, and you've masted them all. Its just their special moves that are different. But I liked it none the less.
Not only could you unlock all these guys, but like Spidey, you can upgrade their Life, Power and Endurance and each has an extra special move that you can upgrade. Spidey is the only character in the game that has 3 different tiers of abilities, web throw, web balls, web tie up. Each has a number of set moves. All very helpful. If the villains all had these different tiers , then I think that would've really made it more in depth and interesting.
The game play itself was not bad, you were able to keep finding enough villains to add to your roster. That it varied how you beat up enemies depending on who you were using, some had longer ranger, some were faster, more powerful, etc. But again, they all had the same button combinations to pull off the same type of move, it was just the animation that was different.The boss fights were actually fun, there weren't hard, but they weren't that easy that you just go up and smack the hell outta them till they fell over. There was some, tiny, weeny bit of thought put into it. What am I saying, it was downright obvious what you had to do, just by looking over the background.
The enemies were a joke, first off, there are 4 different type of enemies, small, medium, large and huge. Each level had the same type of enemies, except they had a different paint scheme and did different actions to attack you. It be the same if they did Mario and the only enemy was the mushroom guy, but every time we got to a new level they painted him a different color and did a different attack. Much like the red and green turtles.
Oh, I forgot to mention, that this game is 2 player, so you could play Spiderman and a friend could control one of the many villain characters. I didn't get a chance to play with a second person on this. But I imagine it be just has fun. The other thing the game offers is like a fighting match option. You and a buddy could go to a VS screen. Where you pick your choice from all the unlocked characters and its now a fighting game. I thought that was a nice little addition. The only thing, is that you can't block. Now that I think about it, you can't block in the regular game too. Not that you needed to block, the enemies were idiots, it was easy to wipe out whole screens of enemies.
Along with the fighting game, you could unlock character designs, level designs and Spideys black suit, which is a little more powerful then that red and blue. Finding all the hidden items in this game that unlocks all this stuff is pretty simple. They arn't hidden very well.
But overall, what do I think of this game. I think that it was made for kids 8 and under. The problem being is that the average person that played this game when it first came out was people my age. I think people were expecting a in depth Spiderman game, something that wasn't lacking in alot of areas. Gameplay, AI, Content, etc. This game is clearly made for kids, young kids who are just starting to get their feet wet in the gaming world. If this game came out when I was 8 years old, I would've loved it.
Because its frikken near impossible to die in this game, it retains the kids attention longer. Having Seth around I can say that, in his younger years, that the minute a game got hard and he couldn't get past a certain area of the game. Then it went in a pile of, this is too hard to do. You won't have that happen with Spiderman, the kids will play it, make their way through to the end and feel great for having beaten all the bosses, found all the secrets and collected all the villains to add to your team. For kids , nothing is better than having that feeling at such a young age.So this game is for kids, Yes I could pick this game apart and say all the things wrong with it and why its no good, compared to everything else out on the market. But I won't, it wouldn't be fair. I had fun playing it, it was simple and super easy. Don't play this game if you are expecting the next GTA or MGS. But when and if you have kids, give them this, they will thank you later.
Adult rating, N/A
Kid rating, 8/10
