Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Spider-Man: The Movie

Written by Chris Reiter on January 30, 2002

First Impressions: My spider-sense is tingling! Oh no wait, that's my pager.

When people think of a spider and a man at the same point in time, for whatever odd reason they are, it'd probably come across their thoughts of the legendary comic book hero, Spider-Man. Marvel Comic's Stan Lee, creator of such comic book characters as The Incredible Hulk, The Torch, and Dr. Doom is finally getting his most well known Spider-Man character into the movies, come May 2002. Based on the movie, a PlayStation 2 version of the game is headed to video game retailers this spring, adjacent of the film's release.

The story, while it remains similar to the movie's main plot -- where a college boy Peter Parker transforms into the hero Spider-Man, and a new foe emerges, as Norman Osborne is accidentally turned into the Green Goblin after a lab experiment goes awry, and now these two will then do battle -- the game will also feature more major comic book villains for an overall longer game. Such other foes that will make a cameo are from the previous PlayStation Spider-Man titles, such as The Shocker, The Scorpion, and even a new addition, The Vulture. Through web spinning, web swinging, and web webbing battles, Spider-Man's ultimate goal is to defend New York City form such threats as these villains.

Neither Neversoft, nor Vicarious Visions -- both being developers of the two PlayStation One incarnations -- will have a hand in this game. Instead, Treyarch, the developer who brought over the Dreamcast versions of Tony Hawk and Spider-Man is building up this title from scratch. There should no major difference with the game's play mechanics, however, since so far the game will be relatively close of that to the original titles. A few slight changes will be improved upon Spidey's past lack of movement, like when swinging from building to building. Now, you'll be able to move fluidly in any direction you want while already facing one way, as compared to the PlayStation titles where if you were to swing, you could go wait until you reached the other side.

New and better Spider-Man moves will also be added into the gameplay. Like in the comic books, Spider-Man will now be able to actually drop down from the ceiling while at the same time attached to his web line. From there, you can surprise enemies from behind by further focusing web shots in an enemy's way, or even swinging punches from above. The Spider-Sense feature used in the past titles will make a return too, with a slew of improvements of course. Such instances as saving people from harm's way or detecting nearby enemies will make Spider-Man's sense tingle. And thus, by using your Spider-Man powers, you'll be able to use your super strength for battle or even carrying people in your arms.

Spider-Man's graphics will look amazingly real. Treyarch's developing characters that move in fluid essence like their comic book blueprints. The hero, the guy who saves the world, Spider-Man himself, so far is detailed with a lot of polygons (2,000 to be exact). One thing to say about the game is that at the moment, there are a few issues with things like shimmering character models and slow frame rate that's moving at 30 frames per second at the moment. But, Treyarch is working hard on the game, and by the time it's finished, it should be moving at a rate of 60 frames per second.

Various areas of the game will be expanded on more so than the other Spider-Man titles. You'll see a subway level, a skyscraper level, inside of different large compounded areas, and even the city at nighttime. Weather effects will also be a part of the new Spider-Man title with implemented fog and rain coming into play. Whether or not the weather will be a key figure in the actual gameplay has not been revealed (for example, slipping on the side of a building when it rains). To say the least, this will be the best-looking Spider-Man game to date.