Super Awesome Blog

In the world of Superhero video games there is an excess of mediocrity. Most of them are paired along with the release of a new movie, so they have very little time to go from concept to finished product. Usually a superhero video game of this sort is sped through every stage of development and play-testing, and the final result is a steamy pile of shit shoved in a box with shiny packaging to catch the eye of some kid that just saw whatever movie it might have been.

Thankfully, this game isn’t really based on any movie but instead on the Spiderman from Marvel’s Ultimate Universe.  The Ultimate Universe is a fresh start for Marvel, allowing them to do all new character back stories without decades of confusing baggage.

THE GOOD

This is probably one of the best Superhero games I’ve played lately. I’d reccomend using a gamepad to play the game, on a keyboard it would probably get confusing, as there are multiple special moves that pretty much require something besides a keyboard. I use an X Box controller and it works perfectly. The graphics are very cartoonish, but in a good way. Most of the game looks like a panel in a comic book come alive, and the end result is visually pleasing, with only light clipping here and there.
The story is an original one that involves many characters from the Ultimate Universe, some of which you can play. As the game progresses you get to play as Spiderman himself as well as his enemy, Venom. Each has different powers that are well implemented. The map is easy to understand and the game world is very open, allowing you to swing wherever you’d like within the virtual New York City.

THE BAD

The game has Story Quests which advance the game’s storyline, as well as Combat Quests, City Events (rescue the random citizen from some threat) and Races. You quickly discover that many of these side quests are very cookie cutter with recycled bad guys. This wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t required to complete a certain number of these side quests to advanced each story line. The races are particularly tedious. I hate any game that gives me a timer on something, especially an arbitrary one like a race. There also isn’t really any “time” in the game. The sun never sets or rises, however it is dark or light depending on the part of the story you’re on.

While the game might look at first to be Grand Theft Auto: Spiderman, it’s not nearly as interactive. You can’t really buy anything, and you’re very limited to interactions with the public (which is too bad.) Most damning of all are the sometimes overly difficult missions which require repetative button mashing in a certain pattern, or a “follow me”
mission, where you have to follow a flying opponent while you can only jump. If they get too far away the mission fails and you have to start ALL OVER again. At various points in this game you’re going to just give up and put it down. If you don’t like Spiderman enough, you’re probably going to put that controller down forever if a certain level is too tedious for you.

OVERALL

Fun game that’s easy to play but has many annoying features like forced prerequisites to the storyline, like irritating races and side quests. The game certainly feels like the developers thought it was too short, and they needed to stretch out the overall play time. There aren’t nearly enough cut scenes, NPC interactions or story development. It is however a pretty game that’s fun for a little while… especially worth what you’ll pay for it today.

FINAL SCORE

3 STARS OUT OF 5 (GOOD)