Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2: The Movie Game is by far the best super-hero game ever!

In the sequel to its predecessor, Spider-Man 2 gives the player the opportunity to actually live the life of a super-hero, with the abilities to interact with people and objects. The layout for the game is very similar to that of the Grand Theft Auto series, so you can do what you want, when you want, and how you want to -- an experience that Spider-Man: The Movie Game lacked. Being more open-ended, you have a choice of which assigned mission you would like to do first in special layouts called 'chapters'. Accomplishing each mission grants you Hero Points (the modern currency for all tight-wearing heroes), which you can use to buy special combos or locomotion upgrades. Accomplishing each mission makes you one step closer to entering the next chapter.

In this game, locomotion and combat tactics are completely advanced. Instead of sticking to the clouds, Spider-Man's web connects to any building that it is pointed to, allowing Spider-Man to swing and gain momentum for the next thread. You can swing the corner of a building to make a turn, or swing from a skyscraper to gain tremendous speed.

If you don't want to swing around, then you can do what was well-needed in the previous game: Sprinting. This makes you move far faster than a run and can help you reach a destination far faster than wall-crawling. Aside from wall-crawling, you can also sprint on the walls (called Wall-Sprinting) or Hyper Crawl (a far faster mode of wall-crawling). Instead of the annoying Zip-Line technique, you can charge up your jump for a Hyper Spring. This leap uses Spidey's strength to leap tremendous distances, allowing you to leap from building to building.

Combat has changed with new combos and dodging enhancements. New combos can sometimes be accomplished by executing a four-button combo or by executing a three-button combo and rapidly pressing an extra button. The Spider-Sense is now triggered whenever Spidey is about to be attacked, and precise timing will allow Spidey to dodge the attack with ease and execute a counter-attack. If you are having trouble, Spidey can also enter into Spider-Reflexes Mode -- a special combat mode that allows Spidey to move far faster than his enemies for a limited time. This mode can change the way Spidey attacks and can sometimes allow Spidey to execute special combos. Fortunately, you have unlimited -- yet harmless -- webbing that can give you an advantage over well-armed foes or over a group of enemies.

Classic characters have entered into the game and some are making a come-back. The mighty Rhino robs a bank; the previously captured Shocker escapes; the master of illusion Mysterio causes havoc by causing an apparent alien take-over; and Doc Ock threatens the lives of your friends and family.

Also, the well-known Black Cat makes her premiere in this game as an ally for some of your many missions, especially those involving the Shocker. As usual, the game will eventually go along with the movie, but the game still possesses its open-ended layout.

In fact, combating these foes is also completely different. Instead of blindly pummeling the foe in the previous game, Spidey's villains have many tricks up their sleeves that may turn the tide on Spidey. Some will unfortunately get away, but you will be prepared for them next time.

This game actually possesses more of the legendary Spider-Man comedy than its predecessor. Many of them are wisecracks against his enemies, while others are self-criticizing. Either way, you may just belly-laugh at most of his funny moments.

Overall: well-built game-play; tremendous amount of opportunities to 'do whatever a spider can'; includes classic Spidey villains and allies; terrific graphics and special effects; excels in providing both direct and tactical combat; and amazing movies.

Rating: 10 out of 10. Highly recommended.

THIS is a Spider-Man game done right.

New York not only looks like New York, but you can explore it to the fullest! The boss-fights are creative and expansive, and there is a lot to do in the city without having to follow the main plot. Not to mention various famous landmarks that ACTUALLY exist in the city; many of which only NYers would recognize. As an added bonus? Bruce Campbell, baby! The best part about the shoddy first game and definitely a great addition to this one. Not to mention you get to hear him well over 200 times! Now, for the bad. The various random missions lack variety. After a while, you just wanna shoot a kid's balloon with a web instead of returning it to him. When the main story is finished, the only thing left to do is finish gathering all the various icons in the game. While many will do this happily to get 100%, it can get dull after a while. The game has replay value, but it's very limited.

Overall, a great movie game and definitely sets the bar for any hero games to follow in the free-roam format.

In this game, you are Spider Man. You deal with super villain threats as Spider Man, and personal relationships as Peter Parker. I think the best part of this game is the gameplay. You can explore the enormous New York map while web-slinging, beat up thugs with upgradeable combo attacks, and climb up (and jump off of) buildings. The web-slinging has been improved since the last game, so now you can web faster, and on buildings instead of thin air. The storyline follows the movie decently, and throws in a few extra super-villains and the black cat to enhance the experience.

As fun as the experience is, it's not without fault. Most of the characters have poorly animated faces, with the exception of Spider Man and Doctor Octopus. The biggest issue with this game is the lack of variety in side missions. This is especially a problem once you beat the game, because from there, the game will have you playing the same (about 8) side missions over and over. despite it's issues, Spider Man 2 is a fun and rewarding experience that texts your skill as a gamer.

I never won this game, but I got through enough of it to review. Let me just say that final fight was super hard and was really ticking me off so instead of going into a Hulk like rage and smashing the television screen I just gave up. Not really my style, but it was just an incredibly hard ending sequence. As for the rest of the game it is a mixed bag, but for the most part it is good as there is a nice couple of story lines in it featuring The Shocker and Mysterio. In fact, I think I enjoyed those two stories more than the one that was based on the movie. I was very disappointed with the fights with Dr. Octopus as they just were awful. I was expecting some really cool fights with the tentacles going everywhere, but the couple of fights there were with him were just him walking on the ceiling. The fighting was okay at times, but strength seems to have been taken out of Spidey's repertoire. This happened in the next game as well, why they never want to make Spider-man super strong and just make him agile and swing around the city. However, that is the high point of this game, the web slinging is simply great fun. In fact I could just do that for an hour at a time. During your web swinging you also have to save people and stop random crimes, this too is a weak point as they just did not add enough variety to the random crimes. Still, this game has its moments like the final fight with Mysterio as that one was not hard but humorous and the voice over work by Bruce Campbell. I just wish they would make a Spider-man game that includes his strength, great web swinging and a lot of super villains.

An infinite number of times better than the first game. You can literally go anywhere and do anything. There is so much to do that even if you beat the game without doing anything else, you won't scratch the 50% bar. There's so much to do that doesn't have anything to with the storyline you can spend a month just swinging around collecting icons and helping people without doing much of anything to the storyline. You gotta love the voice work. Having the people from the movie do the voices for the game does wonders for the feeling of being sucked in to the game. The amount of power ups to buy is staggering and the attacks are very cool. The one I probably enjoyed using the most cold only happen in spider reflex mode. You would kick the person up in the air and proceed to pummel him many times like you were performing a bicycle kick on him. It looked so cool. The fan service in the form of Black Cat was nice. I liked how they cut her hair so short. The amount of markers was unbelievable. You could probably spend the better part of a month just trying to find all the hint markers. You really cannot beat this game in a month. You must try it at least once before you pass judgment.