Spider-Man 3, on the consoles, touted a huge, fully-explorable world. Starting up the DS version, I was expecting the same because the games' faux 3-D makes it look like there might be a way to explore New York on more than two axes. Sadly, you can't. Spider-Man 3 for the DS is purely a side-scrolling game. Side-scrolling isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but there's so much city in the background that's just begging to be explored. There are gangs over there, and I want to beat the tar out of them and earn more power-ups. Now, the city can be explored, but only on a 2-D plane. And if going on random "crime watch" missions to earn power-ups doesn't appeal to you then there's really no reason to explore instead of going on to the next story marker. Where are the optional photo missions seen in the console versions?

Once you come to terms with the lack of exploration, Spider-Man 3 is an innovative action game. Movement is controlled via the d-pad (or the face buttons for us lefties) and all attacks are handles via the touch screen. Need to punch a guy? Draw a line from Spidey to his target. Want to web that thug in the face? Just tap him. Now, Spidey doesn't just have a set of moves. He can chain moves together into combos that get progressively stronger. Unfortunately, these combos are easy to break because the gesture-recognition doesn't seem quite as tight as it ought to be. It's also frustrating to fight with the stylus because your hand will undoubtedly obscure some of the action, and it's easiest to pick a move to use repeatedly (the sweep kick works very well) to clear the area of baddies and advance the story.

Spider-Man 3 for the DS suffers from the same pitfalls as the Wii version. It's repetitive, the controls aren't quite there, and exploring the city is nowhere near as fun as it is in the other versions of the game. It's hard to recommend Spider-Man 3 for the DS. It's sitting right between the excellent GBA version and the good 360/PS3 version of the game. If you need to take it with you, pick up Spidey for the GBA, otherwise the 360 or PS3 versions are a better bet.

May 30, 2007 | 0 comments
Justin Last