First Impressions: Cel-shaded swinging.
Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, has enjoyed a lot of exposure in the last few years. He’s had two blockbuster movies, a couple of animated series, and a number of games. The last of these games, Spider-Man 2, has been hailed by many gaming critics as one of the best translations of a superhero to a videogame ever. Although the game did have its flaws, such as a lackluster fighting engine and repetitive and ridiculous side missions (how many kids can lose their balloons in a day?), almost everyone agreed that the web-slinging portion of the game was the closest any person could get to swinging from the rooftops of Manhattan without actually being bitten by a radioactive spider.
Not sitting on their success, Activision has decided to release another Spider-man title. However, with the next movie still years off, Activision has wisely chosen to base their next Spider-Man game on the original source material, the actual comic. However, instead of going to the original Spider-Man, Activision is looking to the highly popular Ultimate universe version of old Parker. The Ultimate universe has taken all of Marvel’s popular characters and modernized them, making slight changes to their history as necessary to make the characters more accessible to the current generation.
There are a number of instantly noticeable changes to this Spider-Man game. The first and most obvious change is to the graphics. Ultimate Spider-Man has adopted a cel-shaded look that makes it identify with the comics more. Even the cut-scenes consist of animated comic panels, and the entire visual presentation is evocative of the comic series that Spidey fans know and love.
Activision also seems to have improved the action sequences. Since Spider-Man is a hero, there is still a lot of rescuing going on at all times. In one scene, Spider-Man rushes to lift cars and debris off of bystanders after an attack by the enormous Rhino. To lift larger objects, players must alternate between shoulder buttons to simulate Spider-Man’s straining to lift the object. The fighting also seems improved, eschewing the stiff, blocky fighting from Spider-Man 2 for a more dynamic and flowing style that mirrors the agile arachnid’s means of battling.
There is also a big surprise for lover of the dark path. Venom, Spider-Man’s deadliest foe and “evil twin”, is a playable character. Since Venom is so much larger than Spider-Man, he is obviously not just a palette swap alternate. Venom plays different, as he is stronger than Spidey but not quite as quick or agile. Also, while Spider-Man spends his time saving innocents, Venom must devour them. His alien symbiotic costume, the source of his powers, also needs sustenance. If Venom doesn’t absorb innocent bystanders, his alien parasite begins to suck his own life for energy. Playing as Venom promises to be a completely different experience than playing as the web crawler.
