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By Osei Tyson on April 28th, 2002
Introduction Spider-Man the Movie is comming soon. And with that said it is a natural for a videogame counterpart of this Sam Raimi directed movie to arrive. GamersMark knows this. You know it. And Activision knows it too. The publisher enlisted the services of multi-talented development house Treyarch to build not one, but three different versions of the action-adventure an impressive simultaneous release on GameCube, Xbox, PS2, GBA & PC to coincide with the debut of the massive feature film. Spider-Man for GameCube follows the life of super-nerd turn super-hero Peter Parker, detailing as the movie does his life from geeky teenager to photographer extraordinaire and webslinging crime fighter. But the title only loosely sticks to the storyline of the film, and also injects some extra evil foes, missions and scenarios into the mix for good measure. With several different gameplay modes to boot and a pretty visual presentation bringing everything together, Spidey’s next-generation appearance is ultimately a satisfying one, but it does have its drawbacks and could prove a bit too short for players who wanted more Spidey. Presentation Plain & simple I had the most fun on my GameCube pad. It’s all in the analog stick and we all know the Cube has the most sensitive one. Sometimes it’s hard enough to go the right direction while crawling. But it’s much harder when playing with the(in my opinion) stiff Xbox analog stick.The features in Spider-Man are well done. With the challenge of toping the training mode records you will spend and extra 10 hours trying to get in first place. Spidey also has a good bundle of secrets to unlock.
Graphics & Sound GRAPHICS:Visually, the GameCube version of Spider-Man falls right between the crisp and colorful Xbox version and the less defined and more sluggish PS2 game. All three versions are pretty, mind you. Spider-Man GCN brings the movie to life with a well modeled, high polygon 3D main character
Spidey, and some solid enough animation to boot. You’ll be pleased with the webslinger’s quick, fluid movements, his acrobatic jumps up and down walls, onto ceilings and his seemingly choreographed swings through the city. Beyond that, you’ll be treated to some handsome outside 3D areas that stretch into the far distance, huge buildings that reflect sunlight on their windows, a world of streaming traffic far below the city that moves with eerie realism, and more(WARNING YOU STILL CAN’T TOUCH THE GROUND). The indoor environments range from a dark subways to sewer systems, abandoned warehouses, towers, and more all brought to life with relatively strong texture work, detailed, colorful and varied. Each area is filled with a wide range of lower-polygon enemies, all of whom animate a bit on the stiff side, but acceptably still. There are advanced particle effects that disperse flames and splatter, smoke that looks nearly volumetric, some blurring slow-motion effects, and a whole lot of other visual treats too. The framerate isn’t quite as smooth as the Xbox version, which runs at 60 fairly consistently. The GCN version drops regularly between 60 and 30, which isn’t always pleasant on the eyes, but you’ll get used to it as you play through a couple of the bigger city levels(you might not notice anyway). It’s never a troublesome affair like the PS2 version. In the end, the game looks like the movie in a lot of spots, from the characters themselves to the wide, sprawling city locales, to the FMV cut-scenes that highlight some of the action. It’s of course easily the prettiest Spider-Man game to date. SOUND: On the audio side, the GameCube version of Spider-Man delivers a solid experience, but the only version it tops in this department is the GBA cart. Sadly, the title does not run in Dolby Pro Logic II, despite the fact that the PS2 version does. You can thank Nintendo’s way of doing buissness for that. The company was unable to get its contract between Dolby signed, sealed and delivered in time for Activision to put the technology to use on the GCN build. A real shame. Still, even without DPLII, the game is loud, theatrical in some ways, with some seriously funny speech included(if you know Peter Parker you know what I mean). Treyarch nabbed the voices of real actors Tobey Maguire for Peter Parker / Spider-Man and William Dafoe for the Green Goblin where’s Kirstin Dunst you ask? Hey I also wish I knew. But still result is an impressively acted, wittily delivered storyline, with loads of one-liners in the game. As criminals yell, "Is the circus in town?" and other dumb things to Spidey, he retaliates with quick comebacks that will make you show some teeth. Others might make you wince. When the Vulture screams that he just wants to be left alone, Maguire says, "You’ll have lots of time to yourself in your jail cell." Later, as Spider-Man rides atop the backs of enemies, the scream for him to get off, that he’s going to bring them both down. And topping everything off is the voice of Bruce Campbell, who brilliantly narrates the training modes with a sense of style and humor all his own this really adds character to the game(made me spit Pepsi on my Cube). If there is to be an audio drawback, it’s that the GameCube version sounds slightly tinny in comparison to the Xbox and PS2 games, probably due to over-compression. It’s just barely noticeable though. Gameplay Spider-Man for GameCube is a fairly linear 3D action-adventure through 22 stages of varying challenges, from sneaking around crawling atop ceilings of warehouses and figuring out ways to unlock doorways, to fighting flying bosses while swinging in the skies above the city. You control the webslinger himself as he brawls his way about, zips across walls and rooftops, punches, kicks, and dives over enemies, and generally impresses with his quick and powerful abilities. All while trying to enjoy the dull and hollow story.
But the play mechanics, relatively tight, make up for any holes in the story. Spider-Man can graciously swing from building to building, fast and freely, which feels very polished, cling to buildings and crawl in any direction, also very well done, and generally explore without too many problems. Depending on which control setup you prefer, there are two, webs that allow Spidey to glide through the city in strides are cast with the R button, while the analog stick controls his direction and level. There are all sorts of tricks that can be performed in mid-air, from shooting webs at enemies with the Y button -- generally the main form of attack in any air fight, to holding R for more speed, pressing A to free fall, and more. The setup works tightly enough, though you’ll probably smack into a few buildings before you get fully used to it(the problem I hinted on before), and indeed the enhanced control setup is the way to go to me the only way to go. Once you’ve mastered everything as it allows for instance turning in mid-air, an advantage in battles.The biggest problem in the air, as on the ground, is the camera system. It’s just not very smart, and this does have a bearing on gameplay. The sky-based action is largely well angled, easy to see where Spidey is heading and usually equally easy to stay centered on the enemy or object you need to defeat or acquire. But there are definitely times where, after slapping into a building, for example, you’ll lose sight of an enemy and the sucker still moving around, even circling will be just about impossible to get an eye on again. Treyarch has offered control of the camera with the C-Stick, which enables you to look around while playing, but the drawback to doing so is that the camera affects the direction of Spider-Man’s movements. So, if you’re swinging across a city in the left direction and decide to have a look to your right, the hero will also go that way, and then when you try to correct yourself everything will be out of whack. You’ll actually have to stop applying pressure to the camera and let the controls fix themselves. Still trying to correct the issue, the developer has included the option to lock onto enemies so that Spider-Man’s view always stays centered on them. This usually works very nicely. On the ground, Spidey takes on a wealth of different abilities. He can of course run, jump, punch, and kick, but as he progresses through the levels he acquires new combo abilities too. He’ll be able to dive and kick, flip around, execute a gravity-stomping slam, and much more. He can spin webs at enemies, temporarily disabling them, and then pounce. He can encapsulate himself in a shield of webbing that blasts open onto opponents, knocking them down. He can instantly shoot his web up at a high ceiling and immediately stick to it, or to a sidewall, or straight forward. He can shoot his webbing downward at foes while hanging from the ceiling. He can stick to and climb walls and ceilings. He can even jump on the shoulders of an enemy and beat the poor fool over the head while he runs around. The selection of abilities on hand is, quite simply, awesome, and when you walk underneath a ceiling shaft and immediately shoot Spider-Man up it with his webbing, it clicks it feels great, just as you’d imagine, and that’s quite an accomplishment. Webslinging anywhere in these ground levels is pure fun. It’s very seamless and smooth, and offers a real sense of Spidey’s agility and acrobatic movements. With all that said you think ol’ Spidey has all his signture moves well they missed my all time favorite move the web Sheild. And it would have made sense becuse the bad guys can block and you can’t. That really will piss you off when they have guns also.
Lasting Appeal The adventure itself is on the short side, but there are enough training missions and challenges to keep you coming back. Plus, the title may warrant another play through. And when you unlock the secret charcter i’m sure you will come back. All in all I think you could get a good 30 hours out if this game.Conclusion Spider-Man is a great 3D action-adventure. Developer Treyarch has done an exellent job of recreating the feature film for videogame junkies, as Activision’s offering looks and sounds a whole lot like the movie, and even follows some similar plot lines. Control is, for the most part, very satisfying, particularly anything related to Spider-Man’s webbing moves yo-yo up to a ceiling and back down to the groung or swinging bad guys around knocking all the other thugs at the same time is extremely fun and sure to appeal to the spider-man in all of us. The different level modes are equally enticing, from avoiding Shockers blast in the subway to chasing the Vulture up his stupid tower, and to gripping the back of the Green Goblin as he fights to free himself in the skies above a major city. Spider-Man has something for everyone if your a Spider-Man fan buy it right now but if your just looking for a new game to buy I say rent it first. |
