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Ultimate Spider-Man (Xbox)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Activision
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://ultimatespidermangame.com
• Score: 2 of 5: Strictly Rental

Ever since I played Spiderman on the PS1 (which was absolutely amazing) and read and collected the comics, I wanted one thing: to be able to play as Venom. Venom is my favorite villain, and I like him as much as Spiderman, or perhaps even more. Of course, I prefer the Amazing Spiderman series to the new one, Ultimate, and I would have preferred the first by a mile. This game is not called ‘Ultimate Venom,' but Ultimate Spiderman, and the game is split between playing as Spidey and Venom. How does it work out?

The game feels like an interactive comic. The awesome and unique cell-shaded graphics make the game really feel like they were taken out of an Ultimate Spiderman comic. Seriously, I just can't say enough good things about this element. It's just too bad graphics don't make a game.

While you're still able to go around as Spiderman in the Big Apple, it's not nearly as fun as in Spiderman 2, since you are often outside of Manhattan. Because of the inability to swing around skyscrapers, the controls have changed, and you have to do a lot of web-zipping around the small houses.

Speaking of change, the combat is different. You need to web-down your opponent because otherwise they will get up and attack you again. I thought this was quite stupid, since in many Spiderman games, I loved to kick/throw/punch people off buildings and watch them fall to their doom.

Playing as Venom is a totally different experience. He is much stronger and acts much differently. Since the suit is sucking his life away (déjà vu from the Sand Wraith in PoP: WW), he needs to grab people and suck their life away. This was extremely awesome in my opinion and quite useful when a bunch of guys are surrounding you and your health is dropping away. You kill a guy, and you get health. It's a win-win deal. However, it is rather confusing and annoying that by the time you are once again familiar with Spiderman's or Venom's controls, you have to switch.

I don't really like the voices for the characters-especially Peter or Mary Jane. They seemed to kiddy and highly irritating. No, I did not expect or want Peter to sound like Vin Diesel, but in Ultimate Spiderman, he sounds like a little kid, not a teenager. However, the music is not too bad-I especially liked it during the racing side missions.

Since the game is extremely short, Treyarch decided to make the game seem longer by adding MANDATORY boring side missions, known as City Goals. These side quests are beating up baddies, racing and other boring and repetitive stuff. I seriously don't understand why these extremely tedious aspects were made mandatory instead of: a) making it optional to do whenever you want, like side missions in other games (GTA) and/or b) make the game itself longer!

The game features an incredible amount of villains and cameos and other characters. The Beetle, Silver Sable, Wolverine, Rhino and many, many more will definitely please fans of the franchise. The story, unlike in Spiderman 2, is great, and despite annoyances, you will want to finish the game for the story.

While Ultimate Spiderman is not a bad game, it isn't a great one either. The short duration, the mandatory city goals and the lack of the something special or replay value all disallow me to give this game more than a rental rating. Once again, beautiful graphics did not make the game. After renting it and beating it, there will be no good reason for you to buy it unless you are a hardcore Spiderman fanatic or picking it up at a really cheap price.

Feb 22, 2006 | 0 comments
Mate Bors