Spider-Man: The Movie
Reviewed by Dogg
With game after game it was not surprising that yet
another Spider-Man game was in the works. After a
strong resurgence to the Game Boy area with
Mysterio's Menace, Spider-Man returns with a now new
game: Spider-Man: the Movie. This game will of course
focus on the new upcoming film of Spider-Man that is
also set to make a strong appearance in the box
office. Spider-Man: the Movie for the Game Boy
Advance, however, loses most of the shtick that the
Movie would appeal to, so basically this game is like
a brand new and fresh concept. It does take a few
toeholds from the movie; though. Stuff like the
script are all very reminiscent of the movie, and
this game also features a 3-d trailer from the movie
which simply looks impressive due to what the Game
Boy Advance can do.
Spider-Man: the Movie has that same old original
story that can be theoretically seen in any one of
the web-crawler's infamous comics, or games perhaps.
It goes something like this (what? I'm no
storyteller!). Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, works
for a newspaper group called the Daily Bugle. Here
Parker is always given jobs to take photographs, and
the like. Soon attacks start happening, and all signs
of these attacks seem to be coming from OsCorp,
Norman Osborn's facility for evil extraordinaire. Now
Peter is given assignments to go to the places where
the attacks are happening and then to take
photographs of them, but unknown to the whole world
Peter Parker is also the red-spandex wearing hero
called Spider-Man. So as Spider-Man he must also put
a thwart to the 'mysterious' persons plans. Or,
basically you just take photographs and destroy all
of the bad guys roaming in the huge animated areas.
The main villain Spider-Man is after in this game is
greedy man Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the evil Green
Goblin (Spider-Man's most dangerous villain of all
time, according to the comics. ). But Osborn is not
alone on the attack he has also got a few henchmen,
mainly bad guys with bad personalities trying to fork
Spider-Man over to the crossroads. These henchmen of
Osborn's are: the Vulture, one of the first villains
to join Doctor Octopus' Sinister Six crime group,
Kraven the Hunter, a now deceased but formidable
fighter according to the comics, Shocker,
Spider-Man's second most popular villain with
electric capabilities, and Scorpion, the private
investigator turned crustacean villain.
If you have ever played a Spider-Man title before
then you will know exactly how Spider-Man: the Movie
will play out. Basically you web-sling from area to
area, from building to building, from beating up
enemies upon enemies, till you finally and uncivilly
beat the level. As you beat the level, the story will
progress and then you will be introduced to the
forthcomings of the next level. Repeat with this
level, and you will soon prepare to fight a boss.
This is basically the conducing pattern that
Spider-Man: the Movie follows. While there is more
interactivity in each level, it still remains as a
fact that all you do is beat up the enemies and
progress through the side-scrolling area with the
rest of your web-slinging skills.
That is not to say, though, that Spider-Man: the
Movie is not fun. This game is fun. The sometimes
humorous storyline and cut-scenes are sure to put a
smile into someone's endearing eyes, while the
thought of just having Marvel's academic nerdy hero
is yet another thing that will surely impress.
Spider-Man: the Movie also has a lot of focus with
the comics at specific times. The always-appearing
bubbles when you hit enemies, like POW!, BAM!, and
THWACK!, come straight out of the fight scenes from
the comics, while all the added enemies that do not
appear in the movie itself (remember only the Green
Goblin appears in the movie, not the Vulture,
Scorpion, Shocker, etc.) are also ripped straight out
of the comics.
In a level you will be given simple objectives; like
tracking down Scorpion and his legion of robotic
arachnids, or going across thousands of air balloons
trying to find armed bombs. In a level you can also
do some small tasks. These tasks, as mentioned,
require you to take photographs, or irrelevantly find
a hidden area throughout the area. For the
photographs you will basically have to press Select
when the game tells you to. If you took the picture
in time you can later use it to show what happened in
the area. Some levels require you to take over three
to four photographs. For the hidden areas you
basically have to inspect a part of the area really
well. If your inspection goes out smoothly as planned
you will then be awarded for finding the level's
secret. Each area has about three secret areas.
To guide you in your quest are your secondary webbing
skills. These webbing skills include varied types of
attacks. There is original webbing which simply
throws a pile of web string at an enemy, dynamic
webbing which throws web-bombs at enemies, sticky web
which stops an enemy's interaction, arachnid strength
web which powers up your beefy fighting skills for a
limited period, and finally there is the shield web
which makes you invulnerable for a few seconds (about
5-6 seconds overall).
Spider-Man: the Movie features well over a dozen
levels, each one albeit different from the last.
However, what seems to put down the game's pace are
that the levels do not provide much variety or
activity. You basically just break through windows,
avoid dangerous one-kill hazards, beat up stiff
enemies, and then make it out of the level. While
these levels are all huge in comparison, they are all
just too easy making this game more of a weekend
rental, above everything else. What many people will
like or hate about this game, though, are the game's
bonus stages. In these bonus stages you simply use
your unlimited webbing and you go through the city
trying to collect and disarm the Green Goblin's gas
bombs. To guide you in your way of getting these gas
bombs will be your Spider-Direction Arrow located
near the bottom of the Game Boy Advance screen. This
arrow will show you were to go much easier (either
left or right, top to bottom, etc.), and is really
helpful throughout the time it is used. However, in
my opinion what brings these bonus stages down are
the common types of slowdown that occur and that at
times you will press the A button to web-sling, but
you do not. These are, though, my only gripes about
the control setup in this game.
Aside from the levels, however, are the game's
bosses. While yes a powerful villain cast is shown
(Kraven the Hunter anyone?), however, the specific
villain's presentation is very low played out and
each of the villains, when you are fighting them, are
just too too easy. The Vulture, for example, can be
easily taken care of by simple jumping kicks and
punches the same goes with Kraven the Hunter (except
the lights have to be on). Shocker, at first, was a
hard boss for me. I tried kicking and punching him to
death, but it left me to no avail. However, one time,
by mistake, I shot a piece of webbing in the ceiling.
And to my surprise rocks fell down and had then
martyred Shocker to an even instant death. The Green
Goblin is not even that hard. Simple strafing and
then punching would take him down all the time, and
the Scorpion has an easy pattern, that once learned,
would make him dead by the time you finish saying ÒTupperware."
However, the graphics more then make up for the
gameplay. The animation is crisp and fully detailed.
The environments are swift and really fine-looking.
Nearly every visual aspect in this game is
groundbreaking and full of oomph. While the game is
more of a 2-d and pseudo 3-d looking style, hell it
is still impressive to what the Nintendo Game Boy
Advance can do. The audio is also very refreshing and
well tuned. From the tunes that play in the
background, to the extraterrestrial sounding grunts
that the enemies make, it is all very impressive and
stands at a high land-point to what the Game Boy
Advance can produce.
But in the end the graphics and the sound are the
only things that save the game. There are a few
secrets, like movie photos, level select, and extra
costume capabilities, to add some replay value to a
rather abysmal game, but they still do not do
anything to save this game from its degrading
gameplay. Maybe there will be a next time for
Marvel's masked cretin, but as of now the fact
remains that this game will either impress or
un-impress the many people that give it a try. Me, I
say give it a try to see if you like it. If you like
it, enjoy it, and if you hate it, simply blame it on
yourself for playing this game. It is your choiceÉ
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 9/10
Audio: 8/10
Replay: 5/10
Fun in playing the game: 5/10
Overall: 6/10