Gaming Target - Xbox: Spider-Man: The Movie

Written by Nick Doukas on March 18, 2002

First Impressions: All the web slinging and wall crawling you can handleЕ

Spiderman will be hitting the big screen this summer. That's right folks, Peter Parker, the spectacular, aforementioned arachnid, will be exploding out of theaters everywhere in May. Soon after, thanks to the good folks at Activision, gamers everywhere will get to take control of Spidey in a videogame adventure that promises to be the most potent Spiderman experience on a console to date! Developer Treyarch is hard at work, making sure that the Xbox version of Spiderman: The Movie, rocks.

Superhero games are notoriously known for being hit or miss. For every good one that hits the shelves, there are 2 or 3 other abysmal monstrosities angling for your gaming dollar. Superman for the N64 comes to mind, a putrid stink fest that reduced the man of steel to such mundane activities as flying through rings (I'm not kidding) and scavenger hunting (oh, the Humanity). Thankfully, there are 2 extremely promising Superman games in development for both the PS2 and XBox!! But I digress. Spiderman has come a long way since the 16-bit days of the Sega Genesis. Two solid adventures on the PSone have whet gamers appetites the world over for the best Spidey adventure the latest generation of consoles can offer!! Thanks to the sheer power of next generation hardware, this game looks to be a release day purchase for all of you webheads out there. Boasting 20 huge, 3D levels for Spidey to bounce around in, the game is reportedly running beautifully on Microsoft's baby. Sporting fluid character animation and insanely detailed environments, Spiderman will be able to perform countless acrobatic maneuvers, such as: banking around buildings, rising and descending while swinging, zip lining down hallways or to adjacent buildings, and cutting web lines for sudden drops. Add to this an advanced combat system featuring not only dozens of combos, but also the ability to string them together with web attacks, and you can imagine the madness to ensue.

Along the way you'll be fighting the Green Goblin (the main antagonist in the movie), Shocker, and Vulture, as well as experimental HK units courtesy of OSCORP Industries. Xbox owners will also be receiving the good fortune of two exclusive levels featuring Kraven the Hunter. You begin the level having been drugged and, therefore, not in complete control of your spider sense. You'll have to make your way through traps and other obstacles to confront the villain, and destroy him once and for all. Spiderman: The Movie will also feature aerial battles, where you'll face foes high above the city streets. The game features a lock on system, so keeping track of the enemy while performing all of those cool web spinning, somersaulting, back flipping moves will be effortless for the player.

Sources indicate the game environments look as incredible as the character models, with serious detail to the cityscapes, which feature generous polygon counts and clean, impressive textures. Traffic flows on the streets below and one can see far into the distance. Wait until you swing down to a rooftop and back flip off the wall, only to land in beautifully rendered rain puddles that spray realistic water droplets everywhere. Next, it's a quick dash up the building, even higher into the sky, as you prepare for the next pulse pounding battle. You'll even be able to lower yourself from the ceiling (upside down of course) to get the drop on unsuspecting enemies!! Particle effects are in abundance, as well as all the graphical whistles and bells we expect from a Next Gen title of this stature.

Spiderman is set to swing through game retailer's doors this April. Promising some of the best graphics and play yet seen, I think it's safe to say we're in for a real treat. Now, if only J. Jonah Jameson would get off my back, I could get to steppin'Е. up the wall, that is.