Now Playing: Spider-man - Shattered Dimensions(PS3)

 Say hello to Beenox.

 After delivering what was pretty much the best Spider-man game up to that moment, Treyarch was relieved from Spider-man duties by Beenox, the developer who'd helm every subsequent Spider-man game.

 Shattered Dimensions is kind of a blank state for Spider-man games, while many mechanics from Web of Shadows are back, the swinging has been reduced to a more confined environment, so a lot of the fun it derived is gone... 

 ...but that's alright, because this is a different kind of game. Gotta love how many voice actors for Spider-man came back for this iteration, although I would've done things differently. Miguel O'hara should've been voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, Amazing Spider-man by Spider-man TAS' VA, Spider-man Noir by the Spider-man's 80s show VA and... Ultimate Spider-man I agree with. But that's just nitpicking.

 I played about three stages(Tutorial, Amazing and Noir) and it's a pretty fun game. I love the challenge system, but above all, I adore the fact that costumes are back, about time! I used the Iron Spider code since that's pretty much my favorite Spider-man costume, and the Scarlet Spider costumes, since that was my favorite Spider-man character... until Kane took the Scarlet Spider mantle from Ben.

 Anyways, I'm having fun. It's no Web of Shadows, but it's pretty decent.

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.