Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimately disappointing
Tags: Ultimate Spider-Man Categories: GBA Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 5th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Spider-Man (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Adventure | No | ||
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After Vicarious Visions’ DS launch title, Spider-Man 2, mixed great graphics and great gameplay mechnanics with hopelessly frustrating game design, it seems they went back to the drawing board in the hopes of ensuring that Spidey’s second adventure on the DS wouldn’t suffer the same problems. They have succeeded, and Ultimate Spider-Man effectively addresses the problems the first game had. Unfortunately, the game suffers from a new set of problems that make it even less enjoyable than its predecessor.
At the very least, one thing hasn’t changed, and that is that the graphics and presentation are still superb. Spider-Man 2 was one of the most graphically-appealing titles when the DS launched, and Ultimate Spider-Man looks even more sleek and refined. The gameplay still does the old “3D on a 2D plane” thing like the first game, but now to greater affect, because the levels actually wrap around and change direction like in the old Klonoa console games. In addition, the game uses decent cel-shading which, while nothing special, does give the game a very distinct look, too.
The presentation is quite slick, too. The game menus and story sequences make clever use of comic book cels to give the game a genuine comic book-y feel. In addition, all the story sequences are accompanied by voice-overs that are mostly pretty good, although I personally despise whoever is voicing Spider-man.
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As for the game itself, this time around, it’s split into two parts: half the game has you controlling your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and the other half has you playing as your not-so-friendly neighborhood Venom. As you might imagine, this adds a lot of variety to the gameplay, although unfortunately, both have some serious problems dragging them down.
Spider-Man’s half of the game, as you’d imagine, controls similarly to the last game, although now the controls for his web-slingin’ now seems a bit less fluid, which is really a pity considering how nice the controls were the last time around. However, that’s not the real issue here. Vicarious Visions has fixed the last game’s largest flaw, which had you searching for stuff on the map with a time limit when you had no idea where it was. This is done with indicators pointing you towards current objectives, usually innocents to save and criminals to subdue.
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Unfortunately, to keep the pace quick, the minute you get an objective, you’re given a very short amount of time to complete it, meaning that now, instead of using Spidey’s amazing maneuverability to explore the environment, you’re forced to rush from goal to goal. While I can understand that a superhero needs to keep his eyes on the prize, it’s frustrating to constantly have to hurry around like this when you really just want to bust loose with your Spidey skills.
Also frustrating is the game’s insistence on tossing in context-sensitive touchscreen moments that have you quickly switching from regular “D-Pad and buttons” controls to performing some pointless exercise on the touchscreen. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow pulled this crap on us too, but it was a bit more original and forced it upon players far less often. Here, in order to save this innocent bystander (just before having to rush to the next one in five seconds), I have to keep rubbing up on the screen so Spider-Man will lift a car. What purpose does this serve? Why does Vicarious Visions have me switching to touchscreen every ten seconds in a gameplay mode with controls that are otherwise completely traditional?
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Venom’s mode, at least, takes the full leap and has you controlling the game primarily with touchscreen and D-pad, using the D-Pad and L button for movement and jumping, and having you lash out tentacles at your prey on the touchscreen. This is a pretty inventive and original approach, except for the fact that, without the same kind of goals Spider-Man has (Venom doesn’t give a damn about saving innocents, and is actually more likely to gleefully make them his dinner), Venom’s half of the game becomes a simple, repetitive exercise of killing and/or eating people. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Plus, adding insult to injury, the way the mission selection works seems intended to frustrate and annoy you. You’re given missions in pairs, and must choose which one to do first. If, afterwards, you decide that you don’t care for the one you selected, you can’t go back and choose to do the other until after you finish it. Just one more thing the game does that does little other than annoying the player.
In the end, Ultimate Spider-Man makes leaps and bounds to propel the formula set by its predecessor to new heights, but runs out of web and heads careening to the ground. There’s a solid foundation here with a lot of potential to be a great game, but it seems like every time we see this formula swinging out into action, it’s being weighed down by a new set of fun-sucking problems. Here’s hoping Spidey’s next outing will see him leaving this baggage behind.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Great graphics + Fantastic presentation + Basic gameplay is still good |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Constantly being rushed from one problem to the next is no fun - Touchscreen stuff in the Spider-Man portion of the game fits very poorly in with the traditional controls - Venom’s portion of the game is too repetitive and simplistic. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Some of the last title’s problems are resolved, and the presentation is superb, but ultimately this Spider-Man game’s problems make it even less enjoyable than the last one. | |
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Tags: Ultimate Spider-Man
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 5th, 2005 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
