66 out of 66 people found this review helpful.
XBox Movie: Spider-Man ... can you do everything an X-Spiderman can?
Date of Review: Jun 19, 2002
The Bottom Line: If you never played Spider-Man on PlayStation, it's a blast... but it doesn't last long. I'd recommend playing it for the fun of it but rent instead of buy!
Spider-Man... Spider-Man... doing everything a spider can...
remember that theme song from the original cartoon series.
Well, it's 2002 now... the Spider-Man movie is finally out in theaters and is ripping up the box office charts... you know what that means.
There's got to be a video game about it.
The Short Take
Well, I never bought or played the first two Spider-Man games for the original PlayStation. I was told that the first one was a bang up job... the second was almost the same as the first. The latest installment wasn't all that much more.
Well, since I never played those Spider-Man games before, I had a great time with the XBox Spider-Man. The graphics are great... probably the best out of the 3 consoles. The controls are very good (I used the Enhanced mode controls instead of the Classic controls). The number of things Spidey can do (especially in combat) is great... combos galore. Just swinging through the New-York skyline is reason enough to experience the game. On top of that, the game is voiced by the same people who voiced the characters in the movie as well... the dialogue isn't stiff and is delivered quite well... Tobey McGuire's voice works so well for Spider-Man. And you get Bruce Campbell (the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness dude himself) to voice many of the training sections and help icons! Pinhead bowling is fun too.
Well then, why is it only 3 stars? I'm not the best game player in the world... heck, I don't know if I can make it to average... and I can beat this game within 8 hours. So if you're average... you'll probably be done sooner than that. CG graphics are a bit messy... they can look worse than the movie. It's also kinda wierd to see CG versions of everyone from the movie... it seemed wrong... maybe it's just me. The worst is the angle the camera takes in the game. It is difficult to get your orientation when you're on the roof or worse yet... the side of a wall... heck it's near impossible to look at your surrounding without entering the free look mode.
Overall, if you can get the game for $30 or so bucks, I think the game it worth it. I paid about $40 and think that's a bit much for a 6-8 hour game. I think the game is definitely worth a rental especially if you never played any of Activision's Spider-Man games before. If you have a PSOne, then consider buying the first Spider-Man game since it runs about $10-15 brand new!
Being Spider-Man
When you start the game, you'll note that the game starts quite similarly to the movie. You take up the game where Peter Parker has an argument with his Uncle Ben and see the scenes with BoneSaw (although the game doesn't show Randy "Macho Man" Savage in the role like the movie does... it's just a huge masked wrestler... sigh). You start the game after the robber has stolen the money from the wrestling promoter and has killed Uncle Ben. Time for you to don the cheesy Wrestler Spider-Man outfit (just like the movie!).
Well, the game doesn't follow the movie exactly... that would make a really short game! The search for Uncle Ben's killer is alot tougher than in the movie... like 100 guys tougher. Uncle Ben's killer has a huge gang you've got to fight through. When you're done with that... OsCorp sends tons of robotic drones throughout the game (that wasn't in the movie either!)... then there's Shocker, the Vulture, Scorpion, and Kraven the Hunter?! None of these dudes are in the movie either. Obviously, this is to make the game alot longer than just rehashing the movie scenes.
On top of that, Spidey is voiced by Tobey McGuire so that really helps in suspending your belief in playing Spider-Man especially if you just watched the movie! William DaFoe does the Green Goblin's lines too.
More Voice-Acting
Well, on top of many of the game characters being voiced by the actors who played the part in the movie... the additional characters are also voiced well. The designers actually spend time to make the acting sound good in this game.
The rest of the sound effects are good too... not spectacular but good. The sound FX is usually drowned out by background music and the such (I didn't modify the sound controls from the default though).
Graphics
Like most of the XBox titles, the graphics are second to none of the other next generation consoles. The city of New York looks absolutely fabulous especially when you're swinging through it. Lighting is spectacular too... especially in the early morning scenes where the light reflects off the tall glass buildings or when the spotlight from the police helicopter lights up an area. The streets seem full of life as cars zoom this way and that (but you can't go all the way down to street level or even close to it... you always fire a web to keep yourself a fair distance above the ground!). This is not the best looking XBox title but the graphics are fairly polished for the XBox.
Character models are done very well... especially Spidey himself. All characters move fluidly when moving and fighting. Spidey rarely misses a beat even in the air. It is especially cool to see web lines that stick to buildings and that last web line dangling there when you release and do another action. Graphics... XBox... nuff said.
Controls
Since I never played the original Spider-Man games on the PSOne, I wasn't use to the control scheme. I found the Classic controls hard to use on the XBox... thank goodness there is a Enhanced conrol scheme. I got used to that in a hurry. (Enhanced scheme) You select whether the Left thumbstick or the D-pad will control Spidey's movements. The other stick will be used for dodging with the Green button. The Blue button is for punching, activate panels/switches, and lifting objects to throw. The Green button is for jumping up, off a web line, off a wall... etc. The Green button also works with the Left thumbpad/D-pad (depending on which one you didn't use for Spidey's movements) for dodging. The Red button is for kicking and body slamming people whose back you're on. The Yellow is for shooting a web line to tie people up. The right trigger has you swinging in the air. The left trigger activates a web based attack. Holding the left trigger with the red button leads to Spidey creating a web dome. With the Green button it does a web yank on the enemy. With the yellow, Spidey shoots a web ball. With Blue, you get web gloves.
Did I forget the target lock with the white/transparent button. The black button is the web zip button.
In combat, you initiate an attack with a punch or kick... well you can jump first but you can't start a combo from a jump attack. You can't start a combo from a web swing attack either (Cannonball kick)... but that attack does tons of damage anyways. If you start with a ground based punch or kick... hitting a combination of two more buttons (from red, yellow, blue, and green) will lead to a combo attack. One caveat... you have to unlock the combo first by finding the Golden Spider in the level. This leads to many combos and tradmark attacks that Spidey can do. It's really quite fun to have Spidey beat people up.
Air Time!
One of the nicest things about Spider-Man is the Aerial battles... whether it is against the robot drones, the Vulture, or the Green Goblin... the battles are fast, furious, and tons of fun. It is especially nice when you land on the Goblin's back and begin to punch his daylights out... and doing it alongside the New York Skyline too... that's a lot of fun.
Too bad there isn't a lot of outdoor scenes in the game.
What's up with the camera
One of the weakest aspects of the game is the horrible camera angles. The camera is slow to react in battles... even if you have the target/camera lock on. Often you will have no idea where the target is even if the target is just above/below you! Unless the target is right in front of you, you will not notice. If the target gets behind you (which is often in the Green Goblin battles), the camera doesn't adjust to let you track him with the target lock on!
When you're climbing walls... the camera angle can be especially bad. If you're hanging from the roof, it's not so bad... but if you on a side wall... forget it, you can't see anything unless you enter the free look mode. You're not exactly the most observant Spidey then... especially on levels where the computer sends everything and the kitchen sink to kick your behind! The camera really needs alot of work!
Enemy AI
The one thing I hated about Spider-Man is the combat AI. If you have a group of enemies around you... you have to take them on one by one. It is difficult for Spidey to attack more than one enemy in the game... he concentrates on one guy until the baddie gets knocked down. Often, you will attack one guy and the baddie next to him will get a free cheap shot that you didn't mean to give to him... that happens to stun Spidey so everyone gets a punch in. On the other hand... if you don't do a combo, the peon bad guys will get a near automatic hit/combo on you. You find yourself using alot of webbing to isolate enemies into one on one situations.
Boss battles can be quite infuriating. Spidey is supposed to be quick and agile... well, every boss seems to be faster and tougher than Spidey. Even Uncle Ben's killer... a mere human... can get a shotgun blast while you're in a middle of a combo! Try fighing the Green Goblin on the ground... he'll kick your behind so fast you're wondering why the game says game over! Seriously, Goblin always countered my combo starting punch/kick will his own bleeding combo!
Extras
There are a few... Pinhead bowling is fun for a while. Playing as Harry Osborne in the Green Goblin outfit adds some playtime to the game as well. You can use the cheats section of the game to change costumes... Peter Parker changes into Mary Jane Watson?!... no, then how about BoneSaw the wrestler? Either way, you still have all the powers of SpiderMan... Mary Jane is scaling the wall and shooting web balls at people... and saving herself too!
Conclusions
Great graphics, voice-acting, and the immersion of being Spidey is great. However, the poor camera angles, short play time, and unrealistic boss AI and reactions take this game down a few notches. It's definitely worth a rental but not a buy at $40-50.
