Spider-Man: The Movie
Review by Trent Dickerson
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Spider-Man, Spider-Man; doing whatever a Spider-Man can! As much as a superhero Spider-Man is, Stan Lee(his creator) must have been on something when he let this game slip by. Let me put it another way: no game based on a movie has EVER been good, as well as no movie based on a game has EVER been good. All this game does is ride the bandwagon of hype the movie provided. So you've just seen the movie, and now you want to buy the game? I highly recommend you read the following first.
The story is this: you are Peter Parker, average school nerd who works for his local newspaper and lives with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Life is completely normal until one day in the lab at school, you get bitten by a radioactive spider. With your new found powers, you decide to take on wrestling as a night job. One night when Uncle Ben is driving you to wrestling, you have an argument and you storm out of the car, while at the same moment, a robber steals all the money in the wrestling office, and when Uncle Ben tries to stop him, he kills him. It is at this point you realize your responsibility to stop the villains of the city.
The gameplay and controls of the game are kind of screwy. First of all, your attacks consist of kick and punch. That's it. Throughout the game, you can collect Gold Spider icons to learn new combos, some of which can really come in handy later on in the game with some of the bosses. As for the controls, you get used to them pretty fast. They're not very complicated. One last thing I HAVE to mention about the controls is this. Sometimes when you crawling around on the ceiling, if you stop and just sit there, the game will glitch up and Spidey starts moving on his own. This is extremely annoying, especially in the levels where you have to sneak around. You'll be just sitting there, upside-down, waiting for a guard to walk by so you can continue, then all of a sudden, Spidey starts climbing down the wall, revealing himself in front of the guard who is walking by at the same time. This "glitch" is a huge turn off.
The graphics of the game aren't too bad. They're better than N64 graphics, but probably not as good as PlayStation graphics. There are constant slowdowns and the animations are somewhat disappointing. Treyarch obviously didn't focus on structural detail very well, as the inside AND outside of building show no specific detail. And then there's the camera. I won't lie to you when I say the camera's problems alone are reason enough NOT to buy this game. The problem can be adjusted with the C-Stick, but it's still a problem when you can't see an enemy on the other side of you. Also, there is no added HDTV support. Spider-Man and all the villains are designed pretty well, except for the gangsters as their faces are poorly animated. But who cares about a bunch of lowlife thugs, right?
The sound is actually one of the only elements that saves this game, as it sounds very close to the movie. The music isn't really good, since it gets repetitive. This is kind of one of those games where you put your headphones on and mute the TV. Sound effects aren't that special either. Villains' and bad guy's voices consist of only about 7 sentences, and the action effects such as punch, kick, and web sling are nothing but classic sounds. Throughout the game, Spidey occasionally mutters something which is sometimes funny, but most of the time stupid and/or obvious. And another thing about sound, whenever Spider-Man/Peter Parker talks, whether in-game or in a FMV, his voice always makes him sound...uninterested.
There is very little replay value to this game. Of course each time to beat the game, you can earn a new costume to play in throughout the game, and depending on how many bonus points you earn in the game, you can unlock certain things in the Secret Store, such as the mini-game "Pinhead Bowling", or you can unlock hidden FMVs not used in the game.
In conclusion, this is NOT a buy game. This is a rent game. This is a game that you rent just after you go and see the movie. Why just after? Because if you rented it at any other time, you would be just as disappointed as I am in the game. And that's really what this game is: a disappointment.
My Score: 6.2 out of 10
Advantages: Good graphics, decent sound.
Disadvantages: Controls constantly glitch up, camera takes some getting used to, replay value is very low.
