Spider-Man:The Movie Game

[Ralph]

This will be coming to all three consoles. Although, the Xbox version will have 2 additional exclusive levels and an exclusive boss.Here is the official website.

"Activision delivered up the wonderful Marvel goodness that is Spider-Man today, and the nearly finished game, which ships to stores on April 16 -- two weeks before the film appears in theaters nationwide, on May 3 -- takes the Spider-Man series to a fantastic new level of openness, playability, and graphic appeal. The Playstation guys got a little overly excited about Spider-Man games in the past, but this game delivers in ways those older games simply could not.
Everybody who has read a Website or a games magazine in the last year knows that Spider-Man the game, is tied in with the movie from top to bottom. The movie stars Toby McGuire as Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin and Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson, Peter Parker's second girlfriend and future bride (Gwen Stacy, may she rest in peace, was the first). As Activision's third Spider-Man game, and in the safe hands of developer Treyarch, this next-generation version blasts open the technological door that hampered the PlayStation versions, opening up the immense city of New York for Spider-man to perform his acrobatic moves.

Right off the bat, the Spider-Man experience feels huge. The once fogged-in cities that delivered only a hint of the scope and size of the game have been expanded ten-fold. Spidey can spin his web across the skies like before, but now the simple ability to actually ascend or descend has added a brand new feel, and the best analogy is a real one. Simply imagine looking off a huge skyscraper and then safely jumping off. It's pretty awesome.

Players can see the ground dozens of stories down, cars moving along the streets, while helicopters fly around overhead, and the whole city sparkles with flickering city lights. Unlike the first two games on PSX, players can simply stop spinning webs, and fall. Instead of just dying, they can descend and descend and descend, and at nearly any point, they can flip out Spidey's web and latch onto any nearby object. Similarly, Spider-Man can now zip-line to areas far away. Players can press the left trigger to zip to the nearest ceiling. By simply pressing the right analog stick button, you can switch to a look around/targeting mode and fine tune your web zip line destination. For those who don't remember, in Spider-Man 1 and 2, essentially he had to run everywhere he couldn't swing to. The zip-line effect is a perfect shortcut, and one the real Spider-Man would definitely use.

To travel along the city we're given all of the coolness that comes with web-swinging. Using the right trigger, players can shoot Spidey's web across the city, latching on to an invisible object (or the sky if you want our personal opinions), and they can swing from place to place. In between swings, Spidey actually ascends into the air, and starts to drop before extending his next web line and swinging ahead. Outstanding, realistic physics even though Spider-Man is the only fictional person who knows what it's like to swing on webs. It's once again cool just to see Spider-Man swing. As Spidey progresses through the game he learns how to use his abilities, discovers how to benefit from the darkness, ceilings, and high walls, and the very basic training stuff.

Which brings up an important aspect of the game that's entirely new. Bruce Campbell narrates the game. We were partial to Stan Lee, because you can't beat the old school, but Bruce Campbell is a great replacement. Not only because he's so likeable, but because he delivers his excellent lines with the perfect mix of frivolousness and sarcasm. His narration highlights activities such as opening doors, finding secret areas, and hitting switches. He'll say things like, "By hitting this switch, you'll open a door. Go ahead. Try it. C'mon!" or he taunts you for skipping the training mode or laughs unreasonably and manically after telling you something nonsensical.


Adding to the game's far more sophisticated presentation is the development of the story, which starts off with cutscenes of Peter Parker's early wrestling days, the heist that's pinned on him and the death of Uncle Ben. Also, Spidey starts off in his early, rather crude costume (his first wrestling outfit): a simple facemask, a red shirt and some plain old blue slacks. Later on he constructs the killer, red and blue pajama look.. The cut-scenes are excellent, mixing fresh CG work with in-game engine work, and it's all topped off by a soaring movie score and the actual narrating voice of actor Toby McGuire. McGuire tells his first person account of the story, while Campbell is the invisible narrator for the gamer.

When it comes down to straightforward gameplay, Spider-Man is still a basic arcade-action game, enhanced with all of the great Spider-Man abilities. It's simple in some ways, but deep in others. By implementing dozens of additional moves, which add greatly to the hand-to-hand combat, Spider-Man can fight on ground with far more flair. He learns new moves such as the handspring (B, A, B), the Mule Kick (B,B,B), and the Field Goal (X,X, A) among about 28 other moves. The moves come in the form of spider icons and they are found in relatively secret areas. The ones you haven't learned can be seen using the in-game menu under Combat Controls.

Even better than the enhanced ground moves is that Spidey can now dish out some mid-air combat. For instance, when he fights enemies such as the Vulture and Green Goblin in mid-air, there are several completely new abilities he can use. The list of moves include the Cannonball kick, the ability to jump on enemy's shoulders, or onto the Green Goblin's Glider, the ability to cut Spidey's web in mid swing and punch or kick the enemy, the use of his web laser, and of course, his impact webbing.

To be honest, there is so much more to tell! And we don't have enough time. That's why we call this Volume 1. Because we will be back with loads more details you'll want to know. Also, don't forget to check out the FilmForce Website for all of the latest and greatest Spider-Man movie info."

[Misfit410]

That game is gonna rock, I loved the PSX game, sure it was too easy, but it was fun, this one is supposed to be 10X better

[Ralph]

Here is some more info and quite a few screenshots, looking good!

[DeathKnight]

Best Buy has the PC version for $20...

I'm gonna give this one a rent and see how it is

[brc64]

I noticed that the PC version was $20 less than the console versions.. probably because they realized it's next to impossible to play that game with a keyboard, and that people would have to spend an additional $20 on a USB controller or something.

- Me

[gwarz]

spidy on the dreamcast was killer

[Misfit410]

Yea, must be aweful paying $16-20 for a pC controller.. much worst than the $39-$49 console controllers.

I just paid $15, so I could use my PS2 controller on my PC...not a bad deal