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> Results: Ultimate Spider-Man
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Last year's Spider-Man 2 showed off many of the Nintendo DS' capabilities, but was ultimately not a very good game. Ultimate Spider-Man, released across multiple platforms including DS, hopes to deliver improved gameplay performance even as it moves the license to an original story wrapped around the comic book hero and villain pairing of Spider-Man and Venom.
One of the most highly touted aspects of the game is that you get to play as both Spider-Man and Venom, and that you choose which path to pursue. The story of Ultimate Spider-Man is interesting in that the Venom portion is tied directly to storylines from the comics, and it was recently announced that in upcoming comics the story from the Spider-Man side of the game will be further explored and continued. This is indicative of the high quality story presented in a manner that is captivating and stylish. Combined with the excellent music and voice-acting, the cut-scenes are a blast to watch again after you fail a mission. Failing missions is one of the frustrating things about the game, but is an inherent part of the way the game is structured. Gameplay is best described as ﾑtwo-dimensional action in a three-dimensional world', which means that while your controls move the character left or right, the areas occasionally move around you as part of a more realistically designed world. This presentation method is well executed, providing a fun twist on a familiar style. The game is very much goal and mission orientedﾗyou move forward until a new task indicator appears and attempt to take care of the situation before time expires. There is usually a helpful tip available nearby to help you figure out a strategy. Unfortunately, quite often that isn't enough to get you through. You really need to try at least once to get a feel for the mission before you have a chance to complete it successfully.  Much of the action in the game focuses on fighting, and the combat system is loads of fun. You can have an enemy running at you with guns blazing, launch a zip line and rise to the ceiling, drop down behind him and take him out. There are a variety of special moves and combat options available that allow the player to develop their own combat styleﾗone of the best things about the game. There is little exploration. You simply move from mission to mission, but given the style and format that makes sense. All of the technical detailsﾗgraphics, audio, performanceﾗare excellent and never do anything to diminish gameplay or break immersion. The controls are good, with the touch screen used in ways that make sense, responding appropriately. With Venom I had occasional issues trying to grab something with my tendrils and having it not go where I tapped, but that was rare. Ultimate Spider-Man goes beyond the ﾑproof of concept' that Spider-Man 2 provided at the Nintendo DS launch, and is a very fun game. The ability to play as both Spider-Man and Venom makes it very satisfying for fans of the comics; the ability to choose different story paths at various points in the game adds considerable replayability. But despite all of these strengths the game is inherently limited by the two-dimensional format and the mission system which almost guarantees failing one or more times before succeeding. It is difficult to see how they could have approached the game differently, but the fifteenth time failing a mission was frustrating, and it kept a good game from being great.  
Ultimate Spider-Man is the type of game that kids loveﾗfull of comic book style storytelling, and of fast paced action with their favorite hero and villain. The comic book style and gameplay work perfectly together and are very much in line with the Saturday morning cartoon. This game oozes with love for the characters and stories, and is tremendously rewarding for fans, but the gameplay and story flow makes it fun for non-fans as well. Perhaps the greatest testament to how fun the game is that my 9-year old ﾑtest subject' is in love with it, and while talking about how frustrating it can be, he has all but dropped his Advance Wars and Pokémon games to play this exclusively.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Spider-Man" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Ultimate Spider-Man |
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