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