Spider-Man: The Movie Review (GC)

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Anyone suffering from Spider-Man mania? Activision  hopes so, as they released Spider-Man: The Movie for PS2, Xbox and GC. I personally could not find a copy anywhere, but my friend found a copy of the GC version and let me borrow it while he works for the week. Here\'s a review...

Gameplay

The gameplay is a lot like the first Psone games and the DC port. You swing around cities, web-zip across walls and beat up thugs. For good measures, Tyrecha (developer) added in some sleath levels where your only main goal is to avoid being noticed. If you\'re noticed, a groud of "super-guards" come out and in general make your life hell. Also added was areial battels with The Vulture and Green Goblin, where you zip along the skies , while a full city goes on underneath you.
 

Sound good? Well, it\'s not. As a fan of the original PSone games and the DC port, I was more than hyped about this game. I had it right under Resident Evil as games I couldn\'t wait for. Once I loaded it up, it was a totally other story. Gameplay wise, it was just stale and boring. More often than not you are running around in the same ole\' building beating up thugs, with the same ole\' punch-kick-punch combo.. Sure, you can gain more combo\'s but what\'s the point? Punch-kick-punch works the best and takes the least amount of time. You can handle almost all the bosses (not that there is many) with a web hit (back + Y). Just do it over and over and their health bar will go down.  Apparently Spidey\'s arch villians lack anysort of intelligence.

You\'re Spidey though, so you can swing around  levels. That has to be fun, right? Well, only four levels are spent zipping about the city and even then, you\'re attempting to hit an enemy the whole time, which is damn near impossible with the camera..

Once you do finish the game, with the most anti-climatic boss battle ever in the history of super-hero videogames, (I didn\'t even realize it was the damn last boss until the credits started scrolling!) you\'ll be reminded of how short a trip and how dull of a ride Spider-Man: The Movie really is.

It really is that bad my friends...

Oh and for the record...A CGI version of Toby Mcguire is just scarey..I don\'t care if he is Spidey or not. It is scarey.

Control

The game control\'s almost exactly as the previous Spider-Man, which isn\'t a bad thing. Infact, I can only complain about one things for the control..

 Web-Zipping at a diagnoal is almost impossible, which is a shame because you need to do it at one Boss battle. If you fail to, its restart the level for you.  

Graphics

Here is alittle give and take. I know we\'ve all seen the screens and drooled over them and they do tell the truth ...Sorta\'...See, when you are outside and swinging around the city, the game looks simply amazing. When you get inside though, it looks about like any other game. The textures are decent, nothing special..

The character models are an odd thing to say the least. I read a review at IGN speaking about how excellent the character models are and I have to ask.. What do they smoke at IGN? I want some of it! Because if whatever they are smoking makes these character models look good, then it has to be some good sh!t. The character\'s lack any eyes (just look at "The Vulture") and their mouths don\'t even move! Texture detail? Not too hot and Mary Jane looks downright terrible for some reason. The only model that looks good is Spidey himself, go figure.

I would of almost prefered them to have made the whole game just a tech demo of Spider-Man swinging through the levels.

:rolleyes:

Sound

Uhh... You know, I knew there was something wrong when I loaded up the game and selected the training mission and Bruce Campell (Yes, you Evil Dead fans can rejoice) was giving me directions.... He has the worst commentary and it simply annoyed me to death..Well, not quite, but it annoyed me bad enough I exited the training mission and said the hell with it. After that though, I was barraged with a bunch of one liners by none other than Toby Mcguire. It was bad enough that next to my health bar in the training mission there was a picture of him, but now he is talking through thewhole damn game! The worst thing about it is, they are not even cool one liners like in the previous Spider-man games. These are cliche\' as they get.

Example:

Shocker Boss Battle

*SpiderMan see\'s Shocker*

"What are you? Cushion Man?!?"

What in the HELL was they thinking??????

If you can tolerate that, then you\'ll have no problems hearing the same thugs saying the same things over and over.

As for the soundtrack..it sucks..\'Nuff said. I hope none of the music is from the movie, if so soundtrack fans are screwed.

Replay Value

Here is where Spidey scores big time. The developers must of known that this game is way too short, as it can be beat in three hours, so they included a ton of extra\'s. You can get points to unlock certain items, as in customes and so on. There is also an extra bowling mode , where you swing into the pins. Fun? No. But the game will keep you busy trying to get all the secerts. Different customes and so on should be enough for the diehard Spidey fans to go through it again and again. Not I though, as I did that stuff in the first game and have no desire to do it again, espically when the Venom custome isn\'t there...

Overall

What a let down. Here I am three and half hours later and the credits are rolling and I didn\'t even realize I was at the last level. This could of been acceptable if the game was so fun that it was just a wild ride I didn\'t want to come to an end. Instead, the game was just boring and I\'m sort of glad its over. Glad that I don\'t have to endure another level of this crap.

I\'m sure diehard Spiderman fans will love the game, just as I love every Batman game ever made. As a casual Spidey fan though, I just can\'t overlook the glaring flaws in  it, espically when the first two games was so solid.

Don\'t buy it. Rent it if you\'re curious, or a Spider-man fan or just suffering from the Spider mania that is currently sweeping the US...As for me, I think I\'ll find a copy of the DC version of the original game, buy some Spidey- cotton candy (Toys\'r\'us has some, if anyone is interested) and swing through some cities in my Venom custome.

Final Score

5 (out of 10)
Average.

Three hours to complete it?  Good grief.  The IGN editors claimed ten hours of gameplay the first time through.  Well, when it comes to IGN and your review, I\'ll put stock in yours.  Too bad it sucks, at least you didn\'t pay a dime for it.

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Originally posted by Ryu
Three hours to complete it?  Good grief.  The IGN editors claimed ten hours of gameplay the first time through.  Well, when it comes to IGN and your review, I\'ll put stock in yours.  Too bad it sucks, at least you didn\'t pay a dime for it.

IGN is full of crap. It took me right at four hours and part of that was because I paused the game the eat some dinner and what not.

"IGN is full of crap..."

No doubt.  It\'s the main reason why I listen to people like you and Gamespot.  People who don\'t care if a game sucks or not but they will be honest about it.  IGN hyped Spiderman so much over the past week or so and to see them hand out an "Editor\'s Choice" award for a game like this is just... odd.

Originally posted by Ryu
IGN hyped Spiderman so much over the past week or so and to see them hand out an "Editor\'s Choice" award for a game like this is just... odd.

I would call it desperate.  IGN is going down hill, and they will do anything to make money -- even lie to their readers.  

$$$Money Hats$$$!!!  If IGN is giving a game like this a 8.3 (if the reports from the GA forums are correct, that\'s what Spiderman NGC version got), then it is obvious there is money being passed around.  *grOan*  IGN, just die already.


LIC, thanks for the review!  IMO this isn\'t even worth the rent, so you just saved me 7 bucks.

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Originally posted by IronFist

I would call it desperate.  IGN is going down hill, and they will do anything to make money -- even lie to their readers.  

$$$Money Hats$$$!!!  If IGN is giving a game like this a 8.3 (if the reports from the GA forums are correct, that\'s what Spiderman NGC version got), then it is obvious there is money being passed around.  *grOan*  IGN, just die already.


LIC, thanks for the review!  IMO this isn\'t even worth the rent, so you just saved me 7 bucks.

I have seen the review from IGN and the PS2 version did score an 8.3 , I don\'t believe they have reviewed the GC or the Xbox.

No problem. I actually went looking for a copy of the Xbox version today (I so wanted the game and the extra level) but couldn\'t find one. So, my friend picked up a copy of the GC and he has to work , so he let me borrow it. I finished it in one small sitting. I imagine he\'ll take it back and trade it in.

I was really looking forward to this game, but eh, LIC, I\'m going by your review, and avoiding it.

How did your friend get a copy? All the stores around here say that it was delayed until May 8th.

Gamespot gave these scores:

PS2: 7.4
NGC: 7.4
Xbox: 7.5 (extra point in graphics)

They complained about the exact same things you did LIC.

Sounds like a Rent before you buy game. Does anyone know if the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox versions are all the same???

They are except for graphical tweaks and controls.  Gameplay wise, each game is the same with the X-Box having one extra villain.  Other then that, there aren\'t any really big differences.  It\'s basically just three versions of the same game on three different consoles.

Thanks for the review.  I was afraid the game would turn out like this... Oh well, now that I know I won\'t be buying it, I can save up for something else.

Stupid Treyarch.  They could have made this game great, but instead they prove themselves as just another lazy developer by creating a poor game and relying on the Spider-Man license to drive sales.

Aww.....and I was really looking foward to this

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Originally posted by Damien8086
How did your friend get a copy? All the stores around here say that it was delayed until May 8th.

There just seems to be a shortage of the game. I could not find a copy of it at any Wal-Marts. I was constantly told it would be another week or more before they received any copies. Yet, places like EB, Funco and Babbages all had copies.

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip


There just seems to be a shortage of the game. I could not find a copy of it at any Wal-Marts. I was constantly told it would be another week or more before they received any copies. Yet, places like EB, Funco and Babbages all had copies.

I saw it at Target today for all three consoles. I fought off the urge to get it until I read a few more reviews though.