Gaming Target - GameCube: Spider-Man: The Movie

Written by Kyle Williams on May 15, 2002

Full Review: "Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can..."

I have to admit it, "My name is Kyle and I am an Action Junkie." There is very little that I like more than movies, comic books, and video games with fast-paced, heart-pounding action. The problem with this is that there is so much crap that you have to sift through in order to find a gem of an experience. Think about it, for every movie like The Matrix there are at least three wastes of time like Universal Soldier (1, 2, & 3). That is why I was so skeptical about the new Spider-man movie and the slew of games that were accompanying it. Fortunately, the movie really surprised me and completely blew me away. Amazingly, the Gamecube game based off of the movie managed to keep up with the movie and create a memorable experience of its own.

The first hurdle that Spider-man: The Movie Game had to overcome was the dreaded movie-to-videogame transition that has dulled so many shining stars. Traditionally, one of the big problems with this transition has been that movies are stories and short ones at that. There has typically not been enough substance to stretch into a full videogame experience. Activision and Treyarch handled this in what seems to be the perfect way. They took the film's story and added original content to it that keeps the action coming. The game feature several prominent comic book baddies that you never saw in the film including Shocker, Scorpion, and Vulture. Each of these villians adds several levels to the game and give the title a more fleshed out feeling. These levels were put together extremely well and fit almost seamlessly into the movies storyline.

Often, movie-based videogames also fall prey to having uninspired gameplay. Fortunately, Spider-man had a great foundation to build from in two excellent PSX Spider-man titles. If you've played either of these games than the controls will be familiar when you sit down to this game. For the uninitiated, you have a wide range of attacks available to you in this game ranging from punches and kicks to tying up your foes with webbing. You also have a great combo scheme to employ against your foes. While getting the timing right on some of the combos can be tricky, it is important to lean them as they definitely make dealing with hordes of thugs easier. Once you get use to all of the control, they start to become second nature which (in my humble opinion) is a tell-tale sign of a good control scheme.

Not only does Spider-man: The Movie Game have substance, it has style. This is evident in the way that everything looks and sounds. Probably the most noteworthy aspect of the visual department is the sprawling cityscape. It is amazing to swing above the city and be able to see for what seems to be miles. Amidst all of this glory is the one major flaw that I found in the game; The camera can be overly cumbersome. Treyarch does a reasonable job of covering this with a camera lock-on function, but Spider-man falls into the standard third-person action camera problem family. Still, this is not reason enough to avoid the game.

On top of everything else, Treyarch has helped to insure that Spider-man has at least a little bit of staying power after you've played through the whole thing. There are countless mini-games and gallery shots that are waiting for you to unlock. These mini-games are where you can actually get your friends involved in the game as some of them (like pinhead bowling) allow for four player action. True, it isn't a full-fledged multiplayer mode, but unlockable features like this give a purpose to replaying the game.