Spider-Man 2 (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

I always liked Spiderman as a kid and from a pre-teen?s point of view he was definitely the most believable of all the super heroes. After a bit of a holiday and some ropey TV movies it's fair to say that Peter Parker is back thanks to a couple of high profile big screen outings with a few more in the pipeline. Obviously this has led to a whole host of electronic game versions of Spidey's adventures but unlike some other titles, which claim to be an all formats release, Spiderman 2 really is. Not only has it appeared on the big three (GameCube, PS2 and X-Box) but also PC and Mac computers, mobile phones, GameBoy Advance, the new PSP and here it?s a launch title for the DS. On the surface the game has as much going for it as it does against. On the minus side it's a movie tie-in (not a great track record there) and it's a launch title and therefore first generation game. On the plus side, and more importantly as far as we're concerned, Vicarious Visions are behind the development, which can only be a good thing. The question is did they get their heads around this new development system in time? Read on and see...

Gameplay

If you've seen the rather wonderful Spiderman 2 movie then it's fair to say that this DS outing follows the plot reasonably closely except for a few welcome deviations. It's not though, as you'd expect, a straight conversion of the recent console versions, instead it has a lot more in common with the GBC and Advance versions released over the past few years. Most missions generally involve getting to a given point whilst freeing hostages, disarming bombs or destroying robots and generally involve some kind of touch screen interaction. It's these kinds of things that make up your primary objectives and it's only these criteria, which you need to concern yourself with in order to quickly progress to the 16th level. Obviously it's not as straight forward as it first appears and you may spend a considerable amount of time searching a burning building looking for that last henchman or helpless member of the public only for the counter to reach zero and you have to start again. Boss levels take a slightly different approach as they're generally in smaller environments and broken up with touch screen elements such as face to face first person battles.

To make the game last longer and encourage you to explore the levels more fully the developers have added bonus items and secondary objectives. The bonus items are well worth seeking out as these unlock extra moves and power ups and while you may not use them until the latter levels you will eventually need them whilst completing the secondary objectives unlocks other goodies. Fortunately you don't have to discover everything first time around and the developers have produced a handy menu system allowing you to revisit any of the previously played levels even after you've completed the game.

Controls

Pretty complicated to say the least, so much so that you may want to run through the tutorial on the first level a few times just to get yourself up to speed before the real action begins. The outcome of all this is clearly an athletic main character with more than simply a handful of moves to aid his crime fighting duties.

Graphics

Visually Spiderman 2 is probably one of the most impressive launch titles on the DS and if you really want to see the difference between the GBA and this latest piece of kit then this is probably a good place to start. The first thing you'll notice are the stunning environments and while these are not truly interactive 3D they're still very impressive none the less with some areas such as the rail tracks and intersections going back for several blocks. The animation and special effects are also well above average and Spiderman swings above the city streets with as much grace as in the movies. This is all tied together with a generous amount of FMV taken from the console versions, which is again clearer and more detailed than anything we've previously seen on the GBA.

Sound

As with the visuals the sound really is top notch with the developers putting the enhanced sound chip to good use. The music is every inch the super hero theme. It still suffers from the usual cart music downfall of looping a little too much but we can let it go when it sounds this good. The music is accompanied by some crystal clear voice samples and other assorted sound effects making a refreshing change to the audio, which is generally, attached to most movie tie-in titles.

Dual screen

Probably not the greatest demonstration of how the bottom, or touch screen, could or should be used and you do get the distinct impression that the game was designed then the touch screen elements added on. The majority of this interaction is given over to selecting your bonus attacks if you've managed to locate them in other levels. The other is a series of mini-games such as dragging electrodes through a maze to defuse bombs or the much more enjoyable battle with Doc Ock which has you face to face with the unstable inventor as he throws objects at you which you must punch away using your stylus.

Final comments

There's no doubting if you want to see just how visually stunning games are going to be on the DS then Spiderman 2 really is a taster of things to come. It's a little too linear and the main game is a bit on the short side and even though the levels themselves are spun out (with no mid way save points) you?ll still complete the whole thing in only a few sittings. There are some reasons to revisit the game thanks to the hidden bonus items and secondary objectives but this simply requires you to retread your steps and indulge in a little more exploration. Even with all that considered this is still one you should definitely consider adding to you DS collection and there's no questioning the impressive technology on display here will silence some critics of the system. On the other hand if you are simply a Spiderman fan (like me) get it now.

Pro: Looks Incredible.
Con: A Little Too Short.
Final score: 7.3

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