Review #428: Spider-man - Web of Shadows(Playstation 3)

 Spidey's finest.

 After Treyarch's disappointing stint with Spider-man 3, they teamed up with Shaba to bring us their final Spider-man game, and also, their best.

 Remember how Ultimate Spider-man was about Venom and the symbiotes? And how Spider-man 3 was about Venom and symbiotes? And how Friend or Foe was about Symbiotes? Yes, we have another Symbiote/Venom storyline. It's also the best, after tangling with Venom, Spider-man gets to host the Black Suit again, and sadly, he is not the only one. New York falls under the threat of a spreading Symbiote invasion and Spider-man will have to team-up with other street-level heroes like Wolverine, Luke Cage and Moon Knight in order to suppress it. There're a couple of 'moral choices', which will impact the ending that you get, but for all intents and purposes, they are mostly there to give you different cutscenes, but the end result will be the more or less the same. As far as the story goes, I really liked it, although there were a few out of character moments like Spider-man throwing infected citizens down a sky-scraper, a very un-Spider-man thing to do.

 Web of Shadows is the apex of the free-roaming Spider-man game. They polished the mechanics to a shine: R2 is used to shoot webs towards buildings or surfaces, and depending if you tapped it or held it, the type of web you'll shot, either a swinging web or a zip-line. You can increase your speed by holding the jump button. There're over 2000 Spider-icons peppered throughout the city, and collecting these will enhance Spider-man's stats. It feels very rewarding as a whole, since swinging around New York feels like a dream, and you're encouraged to, since these Spider-icons are very plentiful and offer tangible rewards. I often lost myself in swinging around, it's that good.

 The other piece of these games is the combat, and it's the best it's ever been. The city will receive damage from Spider-man's attacks or even enemies', not only that, hitting enemies feels good and crunchy. Spider-man can switch between the Red and Black costumes at will by tapping L3, and both have their own unique movesets which you can alternate at a button's press. It helps how different each version feels, with Spidey offering weak, but fast and tracking attacks, and Black suit Spider-man being a slower, but stronger fighter that covers a ton of ground with his attacks. It's a thing of beauty. Defeating enemies, finishing missions or doing side-activities will earn you experience points which you can then spend in order to unlock new moves for both suits.

 Luckily, story progress is not gated behind side-activies, however, a few have been integrated into the plot. There're a couple of times in which you are tasked with doing 2-3 side activities, or defeating X amount of enemies. It was fairly inoffensive, and at least it was worked into the main plot. It helps that you're given experience points for these, which will then help you upgrade Spider-man. There's a new mechanic in which you can call-in for help from other heroes, while I didn't use it too much, they are fairly competent allies for those pesky 'protect the citizens' missions. QTEs are back, and they are as bad as ever, but at least there weren't as many as there were in Spider-man 3, and messing up only tortures you with having to endure the entire cutscene again, as opposed to healing the boss. So... yeah, they are still annoying but not AS annoying as Spider-man 3's.

 What can I say? Spider-man Web of Shadows is easily one of the best super hero games ever made. While the story can be questionable, everything regarding the gameplays stays true to the character, and everything feels very tight. It's a solid game that even people who know next to nothing about the character can enjoy.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man - Web of Shadows(Playstation 3)

 Now we're talkin'!

 I just spent way more time than anyone should scourging buildings for Spider-collectibles... and it was FUN. Now this is what I expected out of a next-gen Spider-man game, it looks downright beautiful. Combat seems fast and simple, I love being able to switch suits on a whim.

 The new swinging is taking me a little to get used to. First of all, there's no real easy way to cling to buildings besides blocking, which is a bit counterintuitive, but worst of all, they inverted camera controls. After game and game and game and game using a certain camera control scheme this is throwing me outta wack. I hope I can get used to it.

 Nevertheless, this one is shaping up to be the best Spider-man game yet. Fantastic swinging and fantastic combat? Too true to be true... or is it?

Review #427: Spider-man - Web of Shadows Amazing Allies Edition(Playstation 2)

 Comes back in black... never to return again...

 This is it. Spider-man's final outing on the PS2. And... it's a glorified handheld game. I mean, it really is, this is a port of the PSP's 2-D sidescrolling action-platform imagining of the Web of Shadows game. But despite its origins, despite how they opted to port the PSP version and not the Wii's version... it's not that bad of a send off.

 For the third time in a row Symbiotes take center stage in the plot. After tussling with Venom one more time, the symbiote infects Spider-man... and the rest of New York. And outbreak of Venom-like symbiotes infects the city and it's up to Spider-man and Nick Fury to stop it. And no, it's not a reimagining of Friend or Foe, don't be alarmed. One thing to keep in mind is that the presentation is very underwhelming, there're no cutscenes, instead you'll be stuck reading textbox after textbox after textbox. The dialogue is very cheesy and over-the-top, the writers certainly weren't taking the story too seriously, so your mileage may vary on the game's delivery. Oh, and the game's ending? There's none. You defeat the boss and a pop-up tells you that you unlocked New Game Plus. Fun.

 'Moral Choices' were a big thing at the time, and they somewhat implemented in the game to varying degrees of success. Throughout every stage you may come upon NPCs, most which will taks you with a quest, and all of them will bombard you with text and multiple choices, depending on your choices you earn Black or Red reputation points. As far as I know, these only affect which 'Summons' you get, but they also affect which skills you can buy. Mind you, earning Red points doesn't gate you out of Black points and skills, and vice-versa, reputation points only accumulate. Quests are very simple 'find this stuff for me', 'take me there' or 'defeat all enemies', and a very few have different outcomes, which was kinda interesting.

 While this is a 2-D side-scroller, things are rarely linear, making the most out of Spidey's abilities, you'll be able to stick on walls and ceilings, as well as swing with your web through the air or pull yourself with it against a surface. Spidey can punch and kick, and by pressing select you can switch between red and black costumes. Each costume has three exclusive unlockable moves, which were rather... bland. They don't combo to well between your punches and kicks, but they are fun to use every now and then. As for the combat itself, it's relatively fun, the web-head is fast and hitting enemies feels good. You'll also be able to find power ups, such as temporary strength enhancement or even summon enemies and allies(It's not Friend or Foe, I swear) to perform an attack and help you out. I felt it was a bit gimmicky and lame, I never really summoned them and they weren't really needed. Bosses will eventually take out about half of your entire health bar(Even when you bought all four HP increments) with a single hit, but they are very easy to figure out.

 I don't know if it's due to the nature of it being a handheld port, but I felt like graphics were a bit ... I wouldn't call them blurry, not necessarily, but not well defined, if that makes any sense. A few stages, particularly the Luke Cage one felt a bit sloppy, like the camera swinging to fast or finding Spidey apparently teleported elsewhere. IT was mostly a rare occurrence though.

 Spider-man: Web of Shadows Amazing Allies Edition(I hate the title) was not the ideal way to end Spidey's run on the PS2, but at least it wasn't a terrible game. I'm sure most people will find the game too underwhelming to give it a chance, but if you're willing, it just might surprise you.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man - Web of Shadows Amazing Allies Edition

 What an embarrassing title.

 This is it. The final Spider-man game on the PS2, and... and it's a port of the PSP game. Which was the cause of controversy when many PS2 players expected a downgraded port of the PS3 version, y'know, kinda like what the Wii received. But nope, it's a port of the PSP game.


First of all, the game's cover is absolutely hideous, it could've looked better without Wolverine and Venom, kinda like how the DS' cover looks. Secondly, after clearing the first level I though the game was utter crap, then I played the second stage and... and it might not be so bad. The game borrows a lot from handheld Spider-man videogames, which is understandable since the PSP is, well, portable. But it's not altogether a bad game, a waste of the PS2's potential, yes, but a bad game? I don't think so, not yet anyways.

Review #426: Spider-man - Friend or Foe(Playstation 2)

 Mostly foes, really.

 Sometimes a company just wants to release a game because they like money and the license is still burnin' hot. But sometimes there's no movie to tie-in with a videogame, so you pump out a low-budget game for the kiddies. Lo and behold, a Spider-man beat'em up game that trades free-roam for a more linear, simple romp about bashing baddies, while sporting an animated look inspired by Sam Raimi's movies.

 Short and simple: Remember the meteorite that brought Venom to the Earth? Turns out there're more shards and some symbiote-like beings, Phantoms, are attacking and imbuing Spider-man's allies and foes with meteorite shards, making them... even eviler? Now Nick Fury recruits Spider-man and takes him on a global adventure to recover the fragments and stop the Phantom invasion. The story tries to be funny, but unless you're a kid, it'll most probably fall flat on its face.

 On this adventure, Spidey will always be aided by a CPU ally, or a player if you have those things called friends. There's about a dozen different characters, and save for Goblin and New Goblin, all of them play slightly different, with their own unique animations. If you're playing solo, you're free to switch between Spider-man or the AI character at a button press, if you're playing with a second player... hope you enjoy being Spider-man. Characters can also be upgraded with yellow sparks that are left behind fallen enemies and broken objects.

 Square is your attack button, while circle is used for special attacks and grabs. While Friends and Foes are limited to a single special circle move, Spidey can rotate between three different web carts: Grab, Stun and Projectile. Honestly, the grab web is the best, and it's the most fun to play with, since you can do all sort of aerial combos and shenanigans. Honestly, the combat flows pretty smoothly, and it can get pretty fun.

 Spider-man Friend or Foe is simple to a fault, while the game can be fun at times, stages drag for a bit too long and the game is a bit too long for my liking. There're four enemy types, and they are reskined for each of the 5 worlds, so you'll have seen most of what the game has too offer after the first world. Take Final Fight, a game in the same genre, it lasts less than an hour, just before it gets old. Friend or Foe overstays its welcome, but it won't be a problem if you play it sparingly instead of, y'know, playing it all the way to the end in one sitting because you've a blog. Just sayin'. And by the by, the PS2 version is probably the last version you'd want to pick, X360 and Wii have additional characters, like Silver Sable, and even the PSP one-ups it by having Carnage and Electro.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man Friend or Foe(PS2) and Spider-man Web of Shadows(DS)

 Two for the price of one.

 One would think that the downgrade to a single attack button would hurt the game, but since punches and kicks were interchangeable in the DS version... it doesn't change a thing... however, allies have their own unique movesets, which helps a lot. Hitting enemies also feels a tiny bit better.

  It's still nothing special, but it's a better game than the DS iteration, that's for sure.

 It had to be Griptonite. It had to be them. Often accused of creating derivative and creativity-deprived games, I always found them to make pretty good handheld games. Earning their reputation through mobile games, they eventually made it to handheld consoles, and lemme tell ya, their 3DS Shinobi game is downright fantastic.

 But I digress, it had to be this company the one that would show up all others. This Web of Shadows game is a Metroidvania, and it's so much fun. Granted, it's the ugliest Spider-man game yet, well, maybe Friend or Foe was uglier, but what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in substance. I played a few minutes of the game, and I loved it. I actually loved a DS Spider-man game, unbelievable.

Review #425: Spider-man - Friend or Foe(Nintendo DS)

 Spider-man: Dumb or boring.

 I love beat'em ups, and I love starting reviews about beat'em ups with my classic 'I love beat'em ups', it's a very easy genre to screw up, and Friend or Foe for the Nintendo DS is no exception.

 There's a story about meteorite fragments and symbiotes but... I just couldn't get into it. It's not like I didn't want to give it a chance, but the presentation is so poor that it put me off. Cut-scenes, what few there are, are barely animated, and look ugly. The rest of the story is told via long-winded audio exchanges between characters, mostly Spider-man and Nick Fury, but you cant' fast-forward this glorified text boxes, even if you read faster than what they talk so... I skipped them. Sue me.

 X and Y punches and kicks, B jumps and A uses a special attack, you can select between special attacks by tapping L or press R to switch characters. The 'Friend or Foe' title comes from the fact that Spidey will be accompanied by another character on every stage, and the CPU will take control of either Spider or the ally, depending on which character you are playing as. The CPU is a bit dumb, but they don't lose health when hit by enemies. Friends and Foes are basically model-swaps of each other, same three punch and three kick combo as Spider-man, as well as a projectile and an area-of-effect special moves. Besides the fact that some characters have more health than others, there's no other reason as to why you'd use a character over another.

 Exploring stages nets you coins which can be used to upgrade Spider-man(and only Spider-man), buy allies to use in free mode(Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Black Cat, Blade, Sandman and Venom round up the cast) or buy a few extra modes. For whatever reasons, enemies don't drop coins, which is kinda weird, since there's no reward for defeating enemies besides being allowed to progress. And eventually I just avoided every enemy I could, since the fighting is exceedingly repetitive, unrewarding, bland and downright boring. The crappy framerate doesn't help this game's case either.

 As with every single Spider-man game on the DS, tacked-on touch-screen minigames rear their ugly, unwanted head, but at least these mini-games aren't too obtrusive. Kinda. Every level will have you engaging in the same mini-games over and over again, and every single time you engage these, which you must in order to progress, you'll be forced to sit through the explanation. What where they thinking?

 Spider-man - Friend or Foe on the Nintendo DS is yet another subpar Spider-man game on this poor handheld console. Will they ever get it right? Will we finally get a good Spider-man game on the DS? Only god knows...
 4.5 out of 10

Review #424: Spider-man 3(Playstation 3)

 Celebrating Spider-man's jump into HD with QTEs!

 When the time came to bring Spider-man into the HD world Activision got Treyarch to handle the new game. Ever since they created Spider-man 2, they could do no wrong, and now with the added horsepower of the PS3 and X360, surely the new Spider-man game would be a thing of beauty. It's about as pretty as its graphics.... which is not good.

 You get the gist by now, Spider-man movie tie in games have always been a loose retelling of the movie's plot with added micro-plots, and this is no exception. It's also quite different from the PS2 version, the only common threads being the Lizard/Kraven story, the Mad Bomber story and the movie's main story, but even then those missions play out very differently, sometimes with entirely different outcomes. It's a very different game, and even the way they handled certain scenes from the movie differ. For the first time ever, and about damn time too, story progression is not locked behind busywork, and it's pretty lengthy to boot, about 6 hours give or take, more if you indulge in side-activities.

 As with previous Spider-man games, this is an open-world action game, and just as before, between missions you can partake in side-heroics, although now it offers more involved side-activities, some which even take you inside buildings. Thanks to the power of the new consoles, the world around Spider-man is bigger than ever, he ends up feeling as tiny as a spider surrounded by giant buildings. As ugly as the character models are, the city itself is quite pretty to traverse, even if it's not graphically impressive, the scale makes up for that.

 Swinging has always been the best part about Spider-man games, and this Spider-man 3 is no exception. While it doesn't feel as fast as before, the added sense of scale makes it look almost as gratifying as it is to time your button presses. I can't say that it's the best version of the swinging, since it's kinda hard to get on top of buildings without overshooting your jump and thanks to the inability to use the web-zip to climb it faster. The Sprint button is back in action, and it helps speed up Spider-man on foot or on web, depending on when you press the sprint button will change whether you swing faster or higher. Pretty neat.

 The combat has been entirely redone, with Spider-man being able to string weak and strong attacks together, as well as using his webs to pull or push enemies around. There's a new blue gauge that recharges automatically when not in use, and it governs Spider-reflex, which makes everything but Spidey move slowly, and it also allows Spider-man to automatically dodge most attacks. Landing hits will also recharge a round Spider-symbol, once full you can use special moves. The black suit is no longer a power-up, but a shift that Spider-man undergoes midway through the game that can't be reversed unless the story demands it. Black Spider-man has a few different attacks, and the gauge used for special attacks is now spent to enter rage mode: Enhanced strength and the enemies can't block your attacks anymore.

 Look, Spider-man's combat has always been sloppy, and this one isn't any different. At times combat felt a bit too mashy for my taste, and bosses were pretty darn annoying, mostly because they were damage sponges and had way too many invulnerability frames. Mind you, they aren't hard per say, just boring. But what really soured the entire experience for me were the Quick Time Events. The game abuses them. and every boss must be defeated through one. Miss a button input and you take damage and they get back up again with a little health refilled. Because it's always fun having to redo the entire Kingpin fight again because I missed an input and it cost me a retry. The last two bosses, Sandman and Venom, which should've been exciting, turned into the most excruciating part of the game. They aren't even hard, but the QTEs had a short window of time which had me redoing the QTE scenes way too many times for my liking.

 The upgrade system was also very weird. You have to complete missions and sometimes the game will give you something new. Side-activities too, since that's how I got a Spider-reflex upgrade. Swinging is upgraded by swinging a lot, which actually made sense. It's a weird upgrade system, and not one that I liked, since I wanted to get the health upgrades but I didn't know how. A few missions were rather bland too, mostly the Daily Bugle ones.

 I wish I could rate Spider-man 3 higher. Whenever I wasn't doing story missions, I was having a blast. Stopping crime on the streets? Fun. Swinging around from place to place? Fun. Fighting bosses? Made me want to turn the game off. A few weird design choices and lame missions put me off as well. Spider-man 3 on the PS3 isn't a total blunder, but there're so many other, better Spider-man games that do what this one does just as well or even better, without the QTE nonsense.
 5.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man - Friend or Foe(DS)

 Also known as one last attempt to cash in on the movie's success.

 If there's something that Activision loves it's money, and thus we got Friend or Foe. There was no Spider-man movie to cash in on the year of its release, so they went with the movie's art direction and quickly whipped out a small beat'em up game for all consoles(But PS3 because I don't know). So I'll start with the handheld version.

 Too much text. Actually, too much voice work. I wanted to give the story a chance, the first cutscene was really good, but it quickly went downhill with barely animated stills and then... portraits and voiced dialogue. Tons of poorly written exposition dialogue that you can't skip, it bored me so much that I skipped it.

 I just finished the first level, featuring Black Cat, and it was fairly serviceable. I don't have any particular qualms with it, even the touch-screen mini-games were non-intrusive for once in Spider-man's run on the DS. The gameplay is your run-of-the-mill beat'em up featuring simple 3-hit combos, no depth but a lot of mashing. But yeah, it's alright, nothing special, but not as terrible as Spidey's previous outings on the console.

Now Playing: Spider-man 3(Playstation 3)

 Hmmm...

 God, this game is ugly. It's also... interesting, because it's really similar to the Playstation 2 version, but also very different. Both games start exactly the same, as a matter of fact the PS2 version borrows the cutscenes from this one, on the same burning building. And then you're introduced to weak and heavy attacks, and while the animations and 'feel' for the attacks are different, it's also very samey, until dodging is introduced, which works very differently. Then on, you are introduced to a very similar, yet very different set of mechanics.

 I can't say yet which swinging and combat mechanics I like the best yet. I played 12 out of the 42 missions and I'm liking the game. It has the same 'sloppy' feeling Spider-man 2 had, which is rather nostalgic, even though I know the game should feel tighter. And man, are the graphics ugly! At least the new HD graphics do wonder for the city, it looks grander, and Spidey smaller than ever before, and buildings come in all sorts of shapes and colors, a stark contrast to Spider-man 3 on the PS2.

 It's good. It's a fun game, and they managed to make swinging feel fresh thanks to the tweaks and the splendor of the new HD coat of paint which makes the city bigger and better than ever before.

Review #423: Spider-man 3(Playstation 2)

 The last time the PS2 will scrape the skies of New York.

 Welcome to the final free-roaming Spider-man game on the Playstation 2, often derided as the worst on the console... it's not as bad as you've been led to believe. Shortcomings are in no short supply, but the brunt of the game works pretty well and is pretty fun.

 Borrowing the plot from the movie of the same name as the over-arching story, the game fits in a few new subplots involving the Lizard, Kraven, Morbius and a very different version of Shriek. It's a rather poor retelling of an already bland plot, but it does do a few things, dare I say, better than the movie, not that that's very hard to do, all things considered. The game should last about 3 hours, more if you indulge in the two collectathons, one which unlocks nothings and another that lets you use the Black Suit with no penalty... although you unlock this by finishing the story, so what's it's basically useless.

 As with every console Spider-man game since Spider-man 2, there're two main components to the game: Swinging and combat. Swinging has been changed again, and it feels more akin to Ultimate Spider-man, which should be a good thing, but feels heavier and slower. Web-zips won't bring you as far or as high, and it's hard to pinpoint why, but I think it has to do with the added weight, but swinging doesn't flow quite as well. To make up for the slowness, there's a pretty cool zoom-out effect when boosting through your swings, which looks kinda cool. It doesn't help that New York feels lifeless, maybe Ultimate Spider-man 2 spoiled me, but there's a glaring lack of color, even Spider-man 2 had vibrant billboards adding life to the world. It's still undeniably fun to swing around, but I also feel like it's the weakest swinging we've had so far.

 On the other hand, combat's probably the best it's ever been. There're weak and strong attacks that can be comboed together, you can shoot web to divert foes, yank away their shields or throw them around. There're new, fun mechanics like vaulting over enemies and even attack them as you vault over them. The dodge button is back, and there's a new Adrenaline gauge that allows you to use devastating special moves. Spidey has regenerating health as well, up to a certain threshold, by avoiding damage for a while. That said, a few times, even though the targeting-reticule was over the enemy I wanted to attack, Spidey would shoot his web towards a different enemy, and it can get frustrating when trying to fight the more squirmy enemies that need to be distracted with webs to their eyes.

 The Black suit is the biggest new addition, by tapping any direction on the control pad you can put on the black suit for added strength and extended health bar. That said, use it for too long and you die, so you need to take it off, by partaking in a QTE(Don't worry, enemies will ignore you while you grapple with it!), and then there's a Cooldown period before you can wear it again. Did I mention QTEs? The game is rife with them! I will grant it that they are relatively lenient so they are not as bad as they could be, but I hate QTEs with a passion, so I won't forgive it. Fighting enemies and clearing missions will earn you XP which you can then spend on new moves, more health, or more speed. I liked that, it makes doing side activities worth it, and it's always fun to unlock new moves this way.

 

 Side Activities work a little bit different this time around. They are still the same ol' same ol' 'beat a bunch of baddies', 'take this victim to a hospoital' affair, and while the occasional side-mission will pop-up every now and then, you are now encouraged to 'talk to a contact' in order to enter a 3-side-mission burst, with loading screens between each one. Oh, loading screens, loading screens everywhere. Fulfilling a side-mission will force an entire-reload of the game, with you respawned somewhere nearby. Get used to loading screens. And, in the game's defense, this game is a bit more lenient with the 'gating story missions behind busywork' mindset that has plagues the series, only twice was I forced to do side-activities, albeit it amounted to about 6 of these 'contact' sub-missions, for a total of 18 side-activities. Much less than previous games!

 Wrapping all up, it bears mentioning that the game felt quite... buggy. At least three times did I see the 'Mission Failed' pop-up, even though I had cleared the mission and the game counted it as clear. After one mission, Spider-man held om to the guitar I had just dropped off with its owner, and in one of those three 'Mission Failed' pop-ups, I got the cut-scene, got the reward and... got a black screen. Quitting the mission didn't help, retrying didn't help, loading a different save file didn't help, I actually had to restart the PS2. Fun times.

 Flawed? Yes. Ugly? Hideous. But it's also pretty fun. I will concede that among free-roaming Spider-man games, this is the weakest one so far, but I had fun with it, and it got a lot of stuff right. With a little more polishing, it could've been the best one yet.

 6.0 of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man 3(Playstation 2)

 Where's the bad game?

 I came in with low expectations, I came in waiting to be disappointed since I had heard that this game was flat-out terrible on the PS2... but I just spent two hours stuck to the TV playing this game, having a blast.

 First, the bad. It's ugly, like really ugly, and Ultimate Spider-man may have spoiled me, but the city feels devoid of life and color. Also, QTEs, QTEs everywhere. Swinging through the city is still fun, but it's undeniably slower, at least they add a zoom-out effect to make up for that, which looks kinda cool-ish and sometimes makes you forget that you're swinging slower than before. And then we've loading screens, loading screens galore. And just as I was about to write that 'finally, they don't gate out story content behind busywork'... they did. But I think it feels more lenient than before.

 As for the good? It's still free roaming Spider-man. Combat is better than ever, I love unlocking new moves or upgrades through experience points and having dodging back. The new additions are fantastic, vaulting over enemies and special moves, not to mention the Black Suit and getting more life and attack power.

 Basically, I don't think it's quite as good as Ultimate, but damn if it isn't just as good as Spider-man 2. Tobey McGuire and the rest of the cast perform much better as well

Review #422: Spider-man 3(DS)

 Fresh new duds, stinky new control scheme.

 They just couldn't get it right on the DS with the arachnid hero, now could they? Spider-man 3 is another complete overhaul of what came before it, trading the comfort, functionality and precision of buttons for a misguided, cumbersome and clunky touch-based interface. It's not the only game that tried to implement this functionality, but it's easily one of the games that got it the worst.

 The game follows the plot from the movie of the same name, somewhat, while adding snippets from the micro-plots added in the console game. It's badly told, and to add insult to injury, they went with these ugly, ugly cut-scenes styled after newspaper pictures. Minimalist and poor animation coupled with limited color palettes make for some hideous and misguided story-telling.

 The game is a 2-D sidescroller action game structured in missions. Before each mission you are free to explore a somewhat open-ended New York, participate in races or attempt to lower the 'crime rate' by doing random 'side objectives', mostly consisting of beating up miscreants. It's a neat way of emulating the open-world console games. There's also fast-travel between areas, a shop accessed by pausing the game in which you can buy new moves for Spidey and even hidden collectibles worth money peppered through each area. You can tell that the developers tried and that they had a few good ideas in mind, and executed relatively well, if only...

 ...if only they didn't have to go for such a stupid control scheme. You use the control pad to move around, up jumps and diagonals make Spidey start swinging. You can gain altitude by holding the diagonal or maintain your current height by holding either left or right. If you are left handed, the XYAB buttons work exactly like the control pad. The swinging idea is good, on paper, but jumps wound up feeling very floaty and imprecise. It was hard to get my jumps just quite like I wanted them to. There's a few other awkward implementations, like when crawling through a duct, you can't just double tap down or up to change the surface on which Spidey is sticking to, and it's easy to get locked into wall-jumping since they tried to simplify control so much so as to work with only the directional pad.

 Swiping down on the touch pad makes Spidey dodge, swiping makes him attack and double tapping makes him shoot web. It works terribly. The game will often mess up and have you shooting web instead of attacking, or attacking instead of shooting web. Frequently Spider-man will also attack on the opposite direction that you wanted him to. Trying to introduce jumps and jump attacks into your repertoire will make Spider-man fumble his moves even harder. Most of the time I was left feeling frustrated since the touch-screen controls are so unreliable and imprecise. I can appreciate that the developers tried something new, but listen, if you can do something with buttons, and do it better... why go for the least precise, convenient or comfortable choice? Your hand may get cramps at times because of how you've got to hold the console. It's not like a Stylus-only scheme can't work, look at Ninja Gaiden, look at Call of Duty, but even then those games had a few issues that this game has too, only that Spider-man 3's got it worse and in more variety.

 There're a few other mechanics at play here, like the Black Suit. Landing attacks will make your rage build up, once filled Spider-man will wear the Symbiote costume for enhanced strength and a few new animations. Staying out of combat, or taking too much damage, will make the rage lower and eventually lose the suit until you get your rage back up again. Most stages have a 'threat' meter, which translates into you having to do your objectives fast unless you want to retry the entire stage again. Ah, yes, dying means having to do an entire mission again, a few which can be quite lengthy. While I never lost due to time, I did die quite a bunch of times since Spider-man wouldn't attack the way I wanted him to, because the touch-screen controls are so bad. Black Suit Spider-man also tends to slide all over the place, once, after doing a downward kick from the air, he got stuck in a kick frame and slid all over the stage. Pressing buttons did nothing and enemies couldn't hit him out of it, so I died due to the time limit. Fun.

 Mark another one under 'Bad Spider-man handheld games', god knows we've got quite a number under that label. If anything at least this game tried to do something different, and I'm sure their heart was in the right place, but the developers fumbled the execution. The best, and only, praise I can give this game is that I'm sure that it could've been relatively fun had it had button inputs.
 3.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man 3(DS)

 Are we playing the same game?

 So, I started Spider-man 3, and immediately hated the controls. They are too imprecise. Jumping is done by tapping up, swinging y holding up/left or up/right. Hitting is done by swiping(???) the touch screen, shooting web by double tapping on the direction you want to shoot at(IS THIS A JOKE?) and a few other mechanics, like grabs, are done by different swipes. Obviously, the game messes up your inputs constantly.

 The game is almost unwieldly unfun, I can't believe this game got such high scores way back in the day. Touchscreen controls don't have to be bad necessarily, but if your game doesn't need it, don't tack it on. Guess I'll have to suffer through another crappy DS Spider-man game...

Review #421: Spider-man 3(GBA)

 A due send-off unworthy of the franchise.

 For every good Spider-man game on the Gameboy Advance we had two stinkers, so to call Spider-man's tenure on the GBA spotty would be an understatement. Spider-man 3 not only was the last Spider-man movie directed by Sam Raimi, but the last Spider-man game we'd see on the Gameboy Advance... and it's really good.

 As with every handheld Spider-man movie tien-in game, it attempts to follow the story from the console game, but doing a mediocre job at it. Spider-man 3 does a particularly poor job at it, Eddie Brock is introduced before the two last levels and only so that he can get the Venom suit, so people unfamiliar with the franchise or the movie might've trouble making heads and tails from the story. There's a few new microplots borrowed from the console game that didn't appear in the movie, and even then, the game is VERY short, you can probably be done with it in little over an hour.

 Spidey's abilities are par the norm, B punches, or kicks if you hold the L button, R is used to throw web, either to bind enemies, pull hostages(Or enemies!) or pull yourself towards a wall, A jumps and a double press web-swings. Spidey can also crawl on walls and ceilings. This time around, webbing is unlimited, so feel free to shoot web to your heart's content. Peppered throughout stages are Web and Punch power ups, you can grab up to three of each and they will power up your capture power or your strength, but only for the stage's duration. It's interesting, and gives it an arcadey flair. The last new mechanic is the Symbiote Suit, by dealing damage you increase your rage, fill the gauge and you'll be healed to full health, turn black and get increased strength. The suit is lost upon getting hit though. While it doesn't make much sense franchise-wise, it makes for a fun little mechanic.

 Stages are usually about finding stuff, but, unlike previous games, there's no time limit, which makes all the difference in the world. Now you can explore levels at your leisure, so finding stuff is actually fun. There're a few time-sensitive objectives though, but they don't overstay their welcome and help spice things up since they are used sparingly. Plus, most of the time you get a compass aiding you.

 Spider-man 3 on the Gameboy Advance is one of the three 'good' Spider-man games on the little handheld. I think it might be a tad too short, but the rest of the game is pure quality.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man 3

 It seems like we might go out with a bang.

 Sam Raimi's last film also gave us the final Spider-man game on the GBA, and it just might be a winner. I just played the first three levels, and... they are kinda fun. They're a lot of fun. Controls are tight, collision detection is at an all time high, they managed to cram a neat amount of functions on only four buttons, etc.

 The levels are much better designed than the previous Spider-man movie tie-in games, we've got a compass now! Thank you, Ultimate Spider-man Advance for that.

 I don't wanna be too hopeful, but I think this one might be as good as Ultimate Spider-man.

Review #420: Spider-man - Battle for New York(DS)

 It won the battle for worse version of the same game. Kudos to you, DS iteration.

 I'll make it short and simple, this game is horrible. There're almost no redeeming qualities to it, besides the high production values they employed on everything that's superficial and to be watched and not played. Bad move.

 Battle for New York is a very loose retelling of the first couple of issues of Ultimate Spider-man, and it used beautiful comic-like panels as cut-scenes, as well as top notch voice acting. It also uses the same engine as Ultimate Spider-man, so it looks gorgeous. There's not much else that I haven't said on the GBA version's review, it's the same story, the same comic-book panels.

 Everything Spidey could do in Ultimate Spider-man(DS) he can do here, so I won't go over the basics, what has changed is that now you're limited to only four special attacks, but it works pretty much the same as it did before. Green Goblin's the new addition, and he plays the role of the Muscle, he can punch, jump extra high, cling to walls and fire three different types of fireballs, he also gets his own four unique special moves. After clearing a certain number stages you'll be allotted points to spend increasing four stats: Health, Strength, Web Fluid/Fire amount and Web Capture Duration/Fireball power. It's an OK system, and at its core, it should, make for a fun game.

 First let's go over the Spider-man stages: Most of the time he has to rescue people, same as before, except that now it's made extra annoying. The time limit to rescue hostages is very tight, so if you can't find it in time, chances are you're gonna have to start the stage from scratch. It's hilarious because the 'time' is supposed to be their health, but even if you prevent the enemy from harming them any longer, it will still decrease continually, so don't be surprised if you lost as you were trying to deplete the bad guy's life bar. Ultimate Spider-man's tacked-on forced touch-screen activities are back but worse. Using computers is extra annoying now, and there's a new 'web the door' activity used to close off doors to prevent enemies from spawning. Problem is... they can attack you while you are trying to close the door. Even better, as soon as you finish a touch-screen activity, the game immediately resumes so you might want to have that styles on your mouth or something, and yes, you'll want the stylus precision for the annoying web-door minigames.

 Green Goblin's stages fare much better since they are more action-based, but they suffer a bit from minor flaws, also present in Spider-man's levels, like poor level design thanks to enemy placement, and sometimes spotty collision detection. Oh, and they made the special move button the same as picking up civilians. Brilliant. Then we have bosses, and they're not hard, but they are boring. 90% of them are about waiting, waiting and waiting so that they are left vulnerable and you can do a modicum of damage before they go back to their invincibility frames.

 Spider-man Battle for New York on the Nintendo DS is EASILY the worst Spider-man game I've played yet. What hurts the most is that they had a brilliant plot, they had beautiful cutscenes, fantastic artwork and the already decent Ultimate Spider-man engine. But they screwed it up.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #419: Tekken 4

 The Black Sheep of the series takes a step forward...

 Tekken Tag Tournament was more than just another Tekken game, it was a celebration of everything that had come before it, but when it came to the next numbered iteration, they knew they needed something new, fresh, different... and thus came Tekken 4, which now earns the title of the black sheep of the franchise. But me? I think it's one of the most alluring titles in the series.

 Being a fighting game, it offers the usual assortment of modes: Story Mode is an 8 to 9 VS ladder with a narrated prologue and an animated ending for each of the 20 characters, Arcade and Time Attack are two variations of the time-based enemy ladder, VS, VS Team, Survival, Training and a Practice mode in which you can attempt to perform the simpler strings while timed for each character. There's also a beat'em up mini game, Tekken Force, which is rather good, for what it is, and gets really challenging near the end. It's a good offering, and it's bound to keep players busy.

 Returning characters have been entirely redesigned, while new moves are to be expected, Jin Kazama now has an entirely different style. The new characters bring their own new styles as well, except Christie Monteiro, who is just an Eddy reskin. While previous games had open-ended stages, now every stage has a lot of personality: They have walls, different widths and heights as well as uneven terrain and different objects that serve as walls for you to pummel your enemy against. While it has been called unbalanced by the pro-gaming scene, I find it to offer some of the more diverse and memorable stages in the entire series. All these new redesigns and these fantastic, diverse new stages make for a Tekken game that feels very different from one another. If I were to complan about Tekken 5 and 6 is that they tried too hard to be like Tekken 3, Tekken 5 and 6's art design being almost indistinguishable from each other. That personality, that uniqueness is what makes this entry so special.

 That said, there's a little big issue with Tekken 4... the fact that Tekken 5, 6, Tag 2 and 7 exist. As much as I adore it, the game has expanded every character's movesets massively, after playing future games it's hard to come back to the smaller movesets. While I'll defend Tekken 4 for the rest of my life, it's hard to recommend to someone who has already skipped it as something else than a curiosity.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tekken 4

 AKA Now playing: My childhood.

 While I first came into contact with Tekken with Tekken 2, Tekken 3 was when I finally got to play it at the comfort of my house. Tekken Tag was bloody great, and then came Tekken 4, a thing of beauty. My boy, Kazuya, now featured this baddass formal clothes, and we had all this fantastic stages and fresh new designs for the rest of the cast...

 But sadly, most of the aesthetic changes would revert back to a more Tekken 3-ish design, most classic characters would return for no reason and the uneven terrain was axed for Tekken 5. Tekken 6 followed suit. If you asked me to differentiate between Tekken 5 and 6 I wouldn't be able to. And it's a shame, and that's why Tekken 4 feels like a proper sequel, while Tekken 5 feels like Tekken 3.5 and Tekken 6 like Tekken 3.8.

 As much as I liked both 3 and Tag, 4 was the game I had the most beloved memories of, and having played with both Xiaoyu and Hwoarang through story mode, I remembered why. Everything looks so good, so fresh, and not only thanks to the beautiful graphics, but thanks to the new character designs. Characters evolved and changed! The biggest flaw with the game is the existence of Tekken 5, 6, Tag 2 and 7, simply put, characters lack a ton of moves that they would eventually gain.

 That said, this game is a blast, and I would not subject myself anymore to the trash that is Battle for New York DS.

Now Playing: Spider-man - Battle for New York(DS)

 I'm THIS close to abandoning this one.

 Before you consider playing this one: Don't. Ultimate Spider-man(DS) was already a flimsy base on which to build upon, now we've got tighter arbitrary time limits on hostages, and even worse touch-screen minigames. The Simian boss was awful too, I'm still not too sure of how I got past him.

 Regardless, the game is terrible. Terrible. Avoid, avoid, avoid!