Spider-man now has a video game on the GameCube!
November 14, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Max Jones
Spidey’s back in an all-new adventure loosely based on his new film! It is simply titled Spider-Man, and this time around he’s got a whole slew of new moves and abilities, and hey, he’s even more agile than before! The storyline between the Green Goblin, Mary Jane, and Spiderman is taken directly from the movie, the rest of the villains, including “The Shocker”, “Scorpion”, and the newly-made “vulture” are only added for longer gameplay, and, well, it would be kind of boring just having two or three boss fights with the same dude. It starts off with Peter Parker (actually Tobey Maguire’s voice) explaining how he became Spiderman, his short just-for-the-money wrestling career, and Uncle Ben’s death, and leads to extreme butt-kicking action with a couple of mutated-in-some-way baddies. In a game, gameplay always comes first, and in this it pretty much does. The guy can jump, swing, dodge, attack, and pretty much get out of even the worst situations.. In some levels it is best that the player hides in shadows, and avoids being seen, although the game does give you the option of simply being caught and attacking everything in site. The attack system contains a combo-adding system, in which you are to find hidden combos and then be able to use them whenever Spidey is in a tough situation. The Web-slinger also has some nifty web-tricks, for instance, when the player is in a place that he or she is unsure of , the player can press the Z+R buttons to slowly move up or down from the wall, while still being able to shoot webs with the Y-button. He can also zip to direction he’s facing (Of course, there has to be a wall in front of him!). All in all controls and gameplay are above average, compared to similar level-based titles. There is also a neat option that you can unlock that enables the player to play as the Green Goblin, with an alternate storyline, but there are many flaws in Goblin’s gameplay, and the storyline is pretty whacked out, The story and gameplay for Ol’Web-Head is much better, although it is pretty sweet flying by in that hovercraft.. The graphics are definitely top-notch, one of the best-looking games for the cube so far… The in-game graphics can actually compare to the movie, while running at a smooth frame-rate. It’s pretty cool swinging around the streets of New York. In this game, unlike previous Spiderman games, you can actually see what Spiderman is grabbing onto with his web, and you can actually see streets, instead of fog.
The music is somewhat repetitive, and so is the voice-acting. Most of the music isn’t really dark, so it doesn’t seem to fit certain levels, like the warehouse levels. The music, to me, seems a little too happy-go-lucky. Oh, and about the voice-acting, a bit comical at first, but after the fifth “Hey! It’s the Spider-man!”, you might want to lower the volume. The game is great. The graphics, the storyline, and the controls. It only falls short with the repetitive dialogue, and the fact that the game itself is a little on the short side. Anyway, it is a great game, if you’re a Spidey-fan, or you loved the movie or previous games, pick it up now, but if you are the type that only pays for long-games (Zelda), you may want to skip this one.
The music is somewhat repetitive, and so is the voice-acting. Most of the music isn’t really dark, so it doesn’t seem to fit certain levels, like the warehouse levels. The music, to me, seems a little too happy-go-lucky. Oh, and about the voice-acting, a bit comical at first, but after the fifth “Hey! It’s the Spider-man!”, you might want to lower the volume. The game is great. The graphics, the storyline, and the controls. It only falls short with the repetitive dialogue, and the fact that the game itself is a little on the short side. Anyway, it is a great game, if you’re a Spidey-fan, or you loved the movie or previous games, pick it up now, but if you are the type that only pays for long-games (Zelda), you may want to skip this one.





















