Game #1267: The Amazing Spider-man(3DS)

 The tridimensional Spider-man

 It's been a few years since I went over every different console Spider-man videogame, hasn't it? Well, for whatever reason I felt like taking a stab at The Amazing Spider-man on the Nintendo 3DS, a port of the PS3/X360 game of the same name. It's pretty much a direct port, albeit with one key different: The open-world was removed, so it's a linear take on the same game, which makes it feel like the older PS1 Spidey games.

 Well... it's not very good. Instead of an open world, we get a weird "Vigilante Mode" that feels like a mobile game, running on percentage for odds and an energy meter. There are no microtransactions in the game, but this feels so out of place, and it's the only way you can unlock one of Spidey's costumes.

 From what I can tell, the main story of the game is pretty much identical to the Console game, but now there's a mission map from which you can pick between random optional mini-missions, which take the place of random crime activity, as well as the story missions.  Loading times are a bit on the lengthy side, and so are some of the cutscenes, which kinda work against it in the handheld medium.

 The game feels as if it barely works. Combat is identical to the one in the console game, but now it feels janky. Some 'signature moves' take so long that they reset your combo-meter, which sucks since the combo meter increases your strength. The fighting just feels wonky. Plus, to dodge you have to press a button on the touch-screen. And how am I supposed to deal with the goo-spitting enemies? They love to stand on the green goo, which hurts you, and you can't pull them with your web, so what gives? They were a major annoyance, and I don't remember having issues like this with the original console version of the game.

 That said, when the combat works, it's actually fun, since it borrows from Batman Arkham, and when it's at its best, it's quite fun. Plus, even though the character models have been majorly simplified, some of the attack animations are still pretty dope.

 Then there's the exploration, in the small 3DS' screen, everything feels cramped. Once again, I never had any issue with the original game, but here I got lost multiple times, and many times I didn't know where to go. Not having a second analog stick sucks, since you use the DPAD to move the camera, making moving and exploring with the camera at the same time impossible. Crawling on the ceiling feels very awkward too. Too cramped, the camera isn't very useful, etc.

 Not to mention how glitchy it is. One time I fell through the ground, thankfully, I was able to web swing out of it. The camera sometimes bugs out during combat. For instance, one time while in the sewers, I couldn't turn the camera around until I entered and finished a fight, which was a major annoyance. Then there are also interactive spots in which you must hold down X , aim at them and let go, but sometimes the game won't register it. There's a mission in which you must create webbing between cables like this, once I reached the second set of cables... It wouldn't work, I thought I was skipping something, but after trying from a bunch of different angles and distances... it worked. The second fight against Rhino is a major offender, because the camera loves to glitch up to the ceiling, and you also have to create webbings on the fly, and most of the time the game won't register it.

 This game on this console just didn't sit right, nor did it work very well. I remember actually liking this game on PS3, but this version was terrible. No wonder they did something completely different for the sequel.

 2.5